WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY
EMERGENCY NOTIFICATION AND TIMELY WARNING
POLICY AND OPERATIONAL PROCEDURES
Summary
To inform the university community quickly and to achieve the “without delay”
standard required by the Clery Act, WSU Police at the officer-in-charge or above
level or the University Emergency Management Coordinator or his/her designee,
both of whom are part of the Department of Public Safety, will be principally
responsible to prepare and release immediate emergency notifications upon
confirmation of an emergency or dangerous situation.
Emergency Notifications Policy
Upon confirmation of a significant emergency or dangerous situation involving
an immediate threat to the health and safety of students or employees
occurring on the campus, Washington State University will determine and
employ communication methods appropriate to the situation to notify the
affected university community immediately, and without delay. Confirmation of
significant emergencies will require direct investigation by appropriate
University personnel. Taking into account the safety of the community,
Washington State University will determine the content of the notification and
initiate the appropriate elements of the emergency notification system, unless
the notification will, in the professional judgment of responsible authorities,
compromise efforts to assist victims or to contain, respond to, or otherwise
mitigate the emergency.
For all campus law enforcement issues, the WSU Police will be primarily
responsible for confirming a significant emergency or dangerous public safety
situation on campus through victim, witness or officer observations. Upon
confirmation, WSU Police at the officer-in-charge or above level have the
primary responsibility to prepare and issue campus law enforcement emergency
notifications.
For other emergencies, (non-law enforcement) including but not limited to
hazardous materials releases, utility failures, computer
systems/telecommunications failures, hazardous weather, etc. affecting the
WSU campus, other departments at WSU, including , but not limited to
Environmental Health and Safety, Facilities Operations, or Information
Technology, may also confirm a significant emergency. All confirmed non-law
enforcement emergency notifications will be the responsibility of the Office of
Emergency Management. Confirming departments will report the non-law
enforcement emergency to the University Emergency Management Coordinator
or his/her designee, who will have the primary responsibility to prepare and
issue non-law enforcement emergency notifications.
Whether the emergency is a law enforcement or non-law enforcement issue,
those authorized to issue emergency notifications will be responsible for
determining the appropriate segment or segments of the campus community to
notify. Incident circumstances may require only a floor, building, facility, area
etc. will need to be notified as compared to the entire campus.
Examples of situations that would require immediate emergency notifications
could include:

A dangerous suspect at-large for aggravated assault, robbery, arson,
rape, murder (even if the suspect is in custody), etc.

An occurring or impending natural disaster, or

An occurring or impending man-made disaster.
An emergency notification should include information that would enable
members of the university community to take actions to protect themselves.
Information to promote safety would include specific information about the
type of incident, time, location and instructions on what actions to take and
other safety tips.

WSU Communications Tools
WSU has invested significant effort and money to acquire and develop
communications tools that can be used to provide quick and effective
communications to the university community. WSU has three primary tools
plus a number of secondary methods of communication. The primary tools
include the Crisis Communications System (CCS), which allows for direct contact
via telephone voice and text messaging as well as email to those registered for
the system; the Campus Outdoor Warning System (COWS), using sirens and
loudspeakers to provide immediate warning and direction to personnel who are
outside on the main body of the campus; and the WSU ALERT web site where
more detailed information, guidance and resource information can be posted.
The communications tools used for an emergency depend largely on
circumstances, but to meet the timeliness standard of the Clery Act (which has
been interpreted by the enforcement agencies to be measured in minutes), the
best tools are to use appropriate elements of the CCS with instructions in
messaging to visit the WSU ALERT website where more detailed information can
be provided. This timeliness standard does not contemplate or approve of a
higher level review process that would delay a message being released.

Achieving Notification Without Delay
The WSU Police or Office of Emergency Management personnel who are
identified as having responsibility for issuing emergency notifications will
receive training and practice on confirming significant emergency or dangerous
situations, preparation of notification content, and use of the CCS. They will
need to demonstrate proficiency prior to being authorized to issue emergency
notifications. Additionally, printed operational guidelines in the form of an
operator’s manual for the CCS will be prepared by the Office of Emergency
Management and the Business and Finance Systems Office and provided to all
authorized personnel.
To achieve the goal of notification without delay, a standard message structure
would be the most effective. An example of a proposed message structure for
initial law enforcement text/voice/email messaging would be:
SAFETY ALERT
Police are responding to report of <Clery crime or other situation> near
<location>. <safety tip>Go to alert.wsu.edu for info
A similar format appropriate for non-law enforcement notifications would be
employed. This format would be used for the initial text/voice/email message
(under 140 characters as required for SMS text messaging). This form of
message would be able to be released in minutes to provide the emergency
alert necessary for people to take actions to protect themselves as well as to
achieve the timeliness standard. While the message doesn’t include much
detail due to the need to keep it under 140 characters for SMS text messaging,
the message references the WSU ALERT site where additional information can
be provided to expand on the situation, follow up as needed and update as
appropriate as the situation evolves. While the brevity of the message is
limiting, crafting messages longer than 140 characters would cause SMS text
messages to be split into multiple messages to each receiver. This can be
problematical, leading to misunderstood messages, slow message delivery and
additional annoyance to those receiving the messages. The CCS will do voice
conversions of these text messages, automatically or a voice message can be
recorded by the Police using the released text message as the script.
Once the initial message is released on the CCS, additional information on the
incident would be updated on the WSU ALERT website as soon as possible,
unless additional emergency issues developed out of the initial incident that
would require subsequent emergency warnings via the CCS.
It is strongly recommended that there be a “closure” message for each incident.
The closure message would allow people to move on from the alert status the
initial message initiated. Since these messages do not have the immediacy of
the initial message they could be crafted, vetted and approved as appropriate.
A possible law enforcement issue example follows:
SAFETY ALERT CANCELLED
The Police have concluded their response to the report of <Clery crime or other
situation> near <location>. There is no further threat. Go to alert.wsu.edu for
info
As with the initial message, a similar format appropriate for non-law
enforcement notifications would be employed for the “closure message.

Messaging on the ALERT web page
All notifications posted on the WSU ALERT page are the responsibility of the
Office of Emergency Management. The standard would be for the same Safety
Alert text for either law enforcement or non-law enforcement notifications that
were released via the CCS to be posted on the WSU ALERT web page. The
message will be posted immediately after the CCS alert, and will also include
standard text advising recommended actions to take for people to protect
themselves as appropriate to the emergency. As with the initial CCS
messaging, this would not be vetted or require approval of senior
administrators to meet without delay standards.
Assuming people will want more information than the initial posting as quickly
as possible; the OEM will establish a goal of having an expanded posting on the
WSU ALERT web page within 30 minutes of the initial posting. The expanded
WSU ALERT message will contain more details and recommendations for actions
to be taken for people to protect themselves. University Relations will work
with the Police and Emergency Management in crafting this message and the
message will be vetted by appropriate administrators prior to posting if they are
available. Since there are no text length limitations, this expanded posting
could be as detailed as needed.
Finally, as with the CCS messaging, closure of the incident should be provided
with a final posting of an appropriate message detailing the end of the incident
and to make it clear that any threat is over.
Timely Warnings Policy
The Clery Act also contains a requirement for “timely warnings” intended to
communicate prevention strategies for students and employees when an
incident has occurred or a pattern of risk is identified. It is not intended to be
an emergency warning and only needs to be issued in a timely manner. In most
cases there would be adequate time for a “timely warning” to be vetted and
approved by senior administrators. In serious situations a timely warning may
serve as a follow-up to an emergency notification.
While the WSU ALERT web page is the most logical primary site for posting
timely warnings, additional communications tools such as WSU Today,
Announcements and press releases may also be appropriate. University
Relations will work with Police in crafting these warnings.
Examples of issues requiring timely warnings could include:

Investigations of a series of car thefts in a certain area

Unsolved burglaries

A pattern of drug dealings or activities that puts students at risk

Prevention notices, etc.
Per the Clery Act, timely warnings must be issued for the following crimes, if (1)
the crime is reported to campus security authorities, who are identified in the
Annual Security/Fire report, (2) the crime is determined to pose a serious or
continuing threat to WSU students and employees, and (3) the crime occurred
on campus, in or on non-campus buildings or property owned by WSU, or on
public property that is within the campus or immediately adjacent to campus:
•
Criminal homicide (includes murder, non-negligent manslaughter, and
negligent manslaughter)
•
Sex offenses (includes forcible sex offenses and nonforcible sex offenses)
•
Robbery
•
Aggravated assault
•
Burglary
•
Motor vehicle theft
•
Arson
•
Arrests or referrals for disciplinary action for liquor law violations, drug
law violations, and illegal weapons possession
•
Hate crimes, including the following listed below, if such crime manifests
evidence that the victim was intentionally selected because of the victim's
actual or perceived race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, gender,
gender identity, ethnicity, or disability:
•
Any crime listed above, as defined by the Clery Act,
•
Crimes of larceny-theft, simple assault, intimidation, and
destruction/ damage/ vandalism of property, or
•
Any other crime involving bodily injury.
A timely warning may be issued for any other crime or incident as deemed
necessary or appropriate.