28 August 2018
Alex Dant
Do UCCS students know what to do if an emergency occurs on campus, including something as drastic as an active shooter incident or stolen property? Students must have an understanding of the basic resources and emergency procedures on campus. This can improve safety for faculty, staff and students.
Marc Pino, Chief of the UCCS Police Department, has been working with UCCS police for around 14 years, having worked his way up to police chief. As the chief, he is responsible for three primary areas of safety on campus: the police force, the dispatch center and as emergency services.
Pino revealed a lot of resources students can use to keep themselves safe while they’re trying to work for their degree, as well as what incidents occur the most often on campus, and how students can protect themselves from those incidents.
In the resulting conversation about staying safe on campus, Pino offered some information on the type and severity of safety risks that students face.
“We talk about things we’re concerned about,” said Pino, “The high frequency and low cost; they happen frequently but the overall cost is low. But then we have the low probably and high cost, and those are things like active shooters.”
While active shooters have serious consequences, such events happen infrequently on a college campus. Pino says that it is important for students to know how to react to those scenarios.
If Pino could personally show one thing to every student, it would be how to lock the doors.
“There’s a thumb lock on each door,” said Pino, “They walk up to it and turn it and the door is locked. People can still exit if they need to.”
One of the most important precautions that every student can take , according to Pino, is to sign up for emergency notifications This way, students can arrange to receive texts that warn students of any major situation developing, and what they should do in those situations.
The setup for emergency notifications is located on the campus security website. The website also lists safety resource numbers, and instructions for emergency preparation.These resources have been made easy to access just as all resources students should potentially be prepared to use.
The Annual Security Report is made available to students, and it contains the essentials students need in case of an emergency. It also contains emergency contacts and procedures, and all of the criminal records from the previous year.
This information helps students prevent crime from happening in their own lives by educating them about the kinds of crimes occuring more often on campus and those that occur less frequently. According to Pino, the newest report is coming out on October 1 of this year.
One of the other important parts of staying safe is simply maintaining a positive relationship with the police officers working in the community. Events such as the Cops and Donuts Meet and Greet session that is built specifically for students to engage with the officers that work on campus aids in building that relationship. The event takes place September 19 from 7:30 – 10:00 a.m.
UCCS police take a community-oriented approach aiming to maintain a good relationship with the community is essential.
“Campus police have an exceptionally good relationship with our community,” said Pino, “If a student finds the need to call campus police or utilize a police escort to get them safely around campus, they can do so knowing their officers are there to keep them safe.”
More information on campus safety can be found at uccs.edu/pusafety.