College Shootings Show U.S. Campuses Still Vulnerable

Alfonso Lenhardt, NCPC President and CEO

April’s tragic shootings at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, VA, served as a sharp reminder that every college and university is still vulnerable to violence.  The hearts of all of us here at the National Crime Prevention Council’s go out to the victims, their families, and all those touched by this tragic event. The situation showed us that all higher education campuses should continually update and rehearse emergency plans and emphasize community-wide, campus crime prevention strategies that combine prevention with preparedness and educate and involve all key players.

Each campus must work to prevent—and plan to deal with—events no one hopes will ever materialize.  I offer some key prevention and preparedness strategies. Recognize that the entire campus community—students, faculty, staff, local emergency and law enforcement personnel, and neighboring areas—must be involved in prevention. 

• Be prepared for crisis situations.  Develop and practice contingency plans based on a variety of possible emergencies.  Include student and faculty leaders, as well as first responders, who can help coordinate immediate responses.
• Develop mechanisms for communicating regularly (as well as in emergencies) with law enforcement, faculty, staff, students, parents, and the community on prevention strategies and preparedness and response plans.
• Discuss school safety and security activities and plans with parents and students during orientation.  Provide reminders through the communications network to update staff, faculty, returning students, and others.  Consider periodic open forums to answer questions or clarify procedures. 
• Bring together the campus safety team, which should include campus and community safety and security personnel, faculty, staff, students, and parents to review, update, and strengthen prevention and preparedness plans. 
• Use crime analysis and crime mapping tools to help identify crime trends and issues on campus, along with incident analysis to help refine and improve prevention and response strategies.

Through its partnership with International Association of Campus Law Enforcement Administrators (IACLEA), which is supported by the Bureau of Justice Assistance and by ADT Security Services, NCPC can assess prevention opportunities and crime vulnerabilities on college campuses, and ADT offers such services as well.  These partners recently completed a campus crime prevention curriculum pilot that brought prevention and preparedness best practices to campus communities nationwide.  As part of the course pilot, four sites were selected (Duke University; Columbus State Community College in Ohio; University of Texas Health Sciences Center in San Antonio; and California State University at Northridge) to host the three-day classes for 35 participants each.  Schools from the areas surrounding the host colleges sent participants to the training sessions.  The pilot training had 150 participants from 110 colleges and universities.  More training will be scheduled. 

For more information, contact Training Director Christy Sharp at csharp@ncpc.org or 202-261-4140.