After the tragedy at our sister school, and with the first anniversary of the Virginia Tech shootings only two months away, questions arise concerning campus safety at home. The shootings at Northern Illinois University (NIU) in DeKalb left six people dead, including the shooter, and several others injured.
At a press conference Feb. 15, NIU Chief of Police, Donald Grady, said he is proud of the coordination and efficiency of the law enforcement teams responding to the crisis. The incident began at 3:06 p.m., Feb. 14. “By 3:06:29, there were two NIU police officers already in the area. A minute and a half later there were another eight police officers on the scene,” Grady says.
The issue of emergency response was called into question at the Northeastern Illinois University campus when school officials were late in calling the correct resources after a mercury spill in 2005. In response to the 2005 incident, Safety Coordinator and Facilities Management Director Richard Matus said, “One of the things we struggle with is communication.”
In an emergency situation at NEIU, Public Safety Director Jim Lyon said, “[we] use our officers [Northeastern Police] and some facilities management staff. This is what we struggle with; how do we communicate?”
Lyon told the Independent that the campus’ Emergency Management Plan (EMP) has been “in draft form” since 2003 and cited this as a concern during the 2005 mercury spill. Since Feb. 14, 2007, the EMP for NEIU has not been completed.
Lyon is quick to point out that several of the campus police officers have attended the police “Active Shooter” course, created after the shootings at Columbine High School. This is in order to better prepare them for emergency situations on campus. The most recent session was just last month at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and one took place last year with the Lincolnwood Police Department.
In a response to the DeKalb shooting, NEIU Public Safety Officer Sgt. John Foley said, “We have plans in place to respond to certain issues on [our] campus.” But he admited, “We are currently updating our [EMP] protocol.”
In spite of an incomplete emergency protocol, Foley said police officials would be quick in responding. “If we had a situation on campus, we would have police on the spot in under two minutes.”
District 17 of the Chicago Police Department is the unit assigned to assist NEIU Public Safety officers with emergency situations. Patrick Camden, CPD News Affairs Director, said, “We have a school violence response program in place and we run drills all the time.”
With campus officials and local police working together, the security concerns come from the need for an effective campus emergency plan that all coordinating agencies can look at. According to Mark Wilcockson, Vice President of Finance and Administration, the delay in implementing the EMP is exacerbated by the fact that there have been three Public Safety Chiefs since 2003.
Matus said the EMP would continue to develop once it is adopted and training begins. “We need to start planning for likely scenarios, this [general emergency planning] is such a big picture, you have to narrow down and prioritize.”