BLACKBOARD CONFERENCE:

UNCW RESPONSE TO ARMED SUSPECT ON MAIN CAMPUS

Presented by Joy Davis and Kevin Madsen

University of North Carolina Wilmington

Crisis Communications at UNCW

15+ communication “tools”

The full system – including five outdoor sirens – are tested regularly.

Branded as the “UNCW Alert”emergency communication system.

Around 9,500 contacts opted intoConnect Ed text and voicemails

More than 120 hazard-specific scripts developed for text, email and voicemail messages

Mass email message (Blackboard Connect Ed) Mass text message (Blackboard Connect - opt in) Mass voice message (Blackboard Connect - opt in) Five outdoor warning sirens (mechanical – tone only) UNCW Alert Google website Emergency information hotline Facebook announcement Twitter announcement @UNCW announcement (faculty and staff news website) Cable interruption message Campus Channel 77 “Breaking News” banner on UNCW website Homepage news story News & Events website story Entrance marquee (visible to public)

The System

May 8, 2012Blackboard Conference: University of North Carolina Wilmington Presentation

Campus Emergency Responders (in 2011)

University Police (UPD) 40 sworn police officers and telecommunicators Lead for criminal incidents 24/7 Responsible for first alert for major incidents

Environmental Health and safety (EH&S) Nine staff Emergency operations plan, drills,

emergency mitigation, etc. Coordinate emergency response

Marketing and Communications (MaC) Staff of 16 Crisis communications plan, emergency communications tools and

emergency alerts Responsible for emergency alerts to campus and communications to media

Emergency Notification Process

UNCW Police initiate campus communications via Connect Ed and sound the siren.

UNCW Police debriefs and “passes the baton” to MaC.

MaC begins to communicate to campus by deploying most (or all) UNCW Alert tools.

Ongoing communications – updatesinitiated every 30 minutes on web-based information sources

Media calls are addressed and reports are monitored (including social media)

Communication with media and stakeholders can last for days oreven weeks after.

Speed and Communication Impacted by

Multiple jurisdictions – Wilmington Police Department, FBI, etc. Multiple emergency responders – Wilmington Fire Department, New

Hanover Regional Medical Center, etc. Media – local, state, national Time of day –response may

take more time at night Number of staff – need for

support grows as the incident unfolds Available information –

significant time needed to gather info and craft message, especially in large-scale incidents

After receiving reports of an armed robbery at the Hardees adjacent to campus, UNCW Police and Wilmington Police search campus for suspect.

Incident – Gunman on Campus

May 8, 2012Blackboard Conference: University of North Carolina Wilmington Presentation

November 14, 2011

11:54 p.m. Wilmington city Police communicate that robbery suspect reportedly carrying a gun

fled onto UNCW’s main campus:

“Two women reported that they were in a car in the parking lot when a man approached on the passenger side. The victims said the man pointed a handgun at them and demanded their money and cell phones. They gave him their cell phones and a wallet, and the robber ran away. The victims said the man ran toward a wooded area between College Acres Dr. and Randall Parkway on the UNCW campus. WPD notified the UNCW police about the incident…”

 11:58 a.m. Text, voicemail and email sent by UNCW Police Messages received by campus in three minutes

The decision is made not to sound the siren due to the time of night.

First Message

This is a U N C W Alert. I repeat: this is a U N C W Alert. A gunman is/Gunmen are on the U N C W main campus now. AM Eastern Standard Time 1158 PM Monday, November 14, 2011 Immediately go to a safe and secure location. Stay away from windows. Lock doors. Emergency personnel are responding. Monitor cellphone. the U N C W homepage. local media. w w w dot u n c w dot e d u slash alert. and the Emergency Information Hotline at eight eight eight six five seven five seven five one. Occurred off campus at Hardees.

18,324 People Contacted

Phone: Successful Deliveries

Live Answer Voicemail

Unsuccessful Deliveries Hang Up No Answer Undeliverable Network Busy Busy Bad Number

8,4794,252

4,227

502

191

160

125

16

6

3

94.4% Success Rate

November 15, 2011

12:10 a.m. Joy begins to initiate crisis communications plan from her office, Kevin

arrives shortly to assist.

12:22 a.m. MaC has sent notifications via all additional tools, including social media A technical issue with the posting of the hotline message surfaces; tech

support is called Area TV stations have posted the story online MaC begins receiving a flood of calls from media Media have arrived on campus; the library is notified that media are

arriving and may request interviews Monitoring of media stories and social media begins

Social Media

Facebook: A gunman is/Gunmen are on the UNCW main campus now, Hardee's just off campus, 1158 PM, Monday, November 14, 2011. Immediately go to a safe and secure location. Stay away from windows. Lock doors. Emergency personnel are responding. Additional information will follow when available. Monitor your phone, the UNCW homepage, www.uncw.edu/alert, the Emergency Information Hotline at 888.657.5751.

Twitter: Gunman is/Gunmen on UNCW main campus 1158 PM, Monday, Nov.14, 2011. Immediately go to a safe and secure location. www.uncw.edu/alert.

Hour Two

12:51 a.m. Homepage, UNCW Alert site and other web-based tools are updated

with new time. 

1:22 a.m. Information technology resolves the hotline issue and a message is

posted

1:24 a.m. MaC sends updated message to campus and media via all

communication tools

Phone Message - Update

This message is being sent at 1:17 a.m. on Tuesday, November 15. A gunman was spotted on the UNCW main campus shortly before midnight on Monday, November 14, 2011. The gunman was reportedly robbed a person in the Hardees’ parking lot and fled onto the UNCW main campus. No shots were fired and there are no reported injuries. The suspect is a black male approximately 18 to 21 years old carrying a small caliber handgun. Additional police have been brought in at this time and are searching campus properties and buildings and following up on leads.

The campus is asked to stay alert and to report any related information to UNCW Police at 911.Monitor your phone, the UNCW homepage, www.uncw.edu/alert, the Emergency Information Hotline at 888.657.5751 and local media for more information.

Hour Two con’t

1:31 a.m. By this time, the UNCW Police Chief has been interviewed by multiple

media outlets including the Associated Press. Media requests are coordinated by MaC

  

1:44 a.m. National media are misreporting story; Marketing begins to correct errors Homepage, UNCW Alert site and other web-based tools are updated with

new time

 

2:02 a.m. Separate message sent to media

Message to Media

Police at the University of North Carolina Wilmington continue to search for a gunman who was spotted on the UNCW main campus shortly before midnight on Monday, November 14, 2011. The gunman reportedly robbed a person in the Hardees parking lot on College Road and fled onto the UNCW main campus. No shots were fired and there are no reported injuries. The suspect is a black male, approximately 18 to 21 years old, carrying a small caliber handgun. Additional police have been brought in to search campus properties and buildings as well as to follow up on leads.

The victim in the Hardees robbery is not a UNCW student. UNCW and Wilmington police responded to the incident and saturated the area. At this time, the suspect has not been located. Officers continue to patrol the campus and peripheral areas, with the safety of the campus community as their top priority.

The campus has been asked to stay alert and to report any related information to UNCW Police at 911. Updates have been sent to the campus via email, text messages, voice mail messages and postings to the UNCW homepage and the Emergency Information Hotline at 888.675.5751.

More information will be provided as it is available.

Local News

UNCW police alert students and staff of gunman on campus overnightWILMINGTON, NC (WECT) - Shortly before 5 a.m. Tuesday, Wilmington Police and officials of UNC-Wilmington lifted a shelter order for students and staff to remain indoors.

Officials say a man involved in an armed robbery at Hardees fled towards UNCW's campus and is still at large. Extra security was in place at the university Tuesday while police continued to search for the man. According to police, two women said they were in a car in the parking lot of Hardee's at 429 South College Road when a man approached the passenger side door around 11:55 p.m.

The victims said the man pointed a handgun and demanded money and cell phones.  They gave him the requested items, and the robber ran away toward a wooded area between College Acres Drive and Randall Parkway on UNCW's campus.

http://www.wect.com/Global/story.asp?S=16040487

Wilmington police say a man robbed at least two people at gunpoint in the parking lot of the Hardee's restaurant at 429 South College Road.

Got the alert to my phone 40 mins ago. I live off campus, but props to UNCW for getting the word out so fast.

@Chris_EasonNov 15 2011

+21 Share | Flag

National News

UNC Wilmington Holds Classes While Gunman Is At Large 11/15/11 06:09 AM ET   Associated Press

WILMINGTON, N.C. -- Classes were scheduled to proceed as usual Tuesday morning at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, as the search continued for a gunman who ran toward the campus after a holdup overnight.Instructions for students to remain in secure locations that had been issued after the holdup shortly before midnight Monday were lifted at 5 a.m. Tuesday, school spokeswoman Dana Fischetti said.The suspect in the robbery of four people at a nearby fast food restaurant was still at large early Tuesday, but extra police officers were on campus as the search continued, Fischetti said. Students were free to move about the campus, but should be alert and report suspicious activity to police, she said.The school had issued alerts via email, text message, voicemail and on the university's website after the robbery. Those on campus were warned to find a secure location, lock doors and stay away from windows.Wilmington police used a helicopter and K-9 unit to try to find the man, who was wearing a red cloth over his face, Officer Kenneth Reichard told The Associated Press.Campus Police Chief David Donaldson told the AP the alert was issued as a "precautionary measure." The suspect was carrying a small-caliber handgun, Donaldson said.Located on North Carolina's coastline, the university has about 13,000 students and has grown significantly since a 2002 bond issue that paved the way for more than $508 million to be spent on capital projects at the campus. Although well-known for its ocean and marine research programs, the school offers dozens of majors and has also been used as the preseason training camp of the NBA's Charlotte Bobcats.In August, another situation involving a gunman on campus raised concerns from university officials who said the school's emergency alert system failed to properly notify the campus as police searched for a man accused of a shooting in a nearby apartment complex.After the shooting, Donaldson ordered a campus-wide alert via phone, text message and email to warn the community about the armed man on the loose. The alert was never sent.Officials said at the time the lapse appeared to be a case of human error rather than a technical problem, and Fischetti said updates were being sent to the campus via text message, email and voice message late Monday night and early Tuesday morning.The alert system at UNCW encompasses not only phone calls, emails and text messages, but can include everything from social media to the interruption of cable television on campus. The system was adopted by the university after the 2007 massacre at Virginia Tech as a way of getting emergency information out in as many formats as possible in a short amount of time.

The school had issued alerts via email, text message, voicemail and on the university's website after the robbery. Those on campus were warned to find a secure location, lock doors and stay away from windows.

Wilmington police used a helicopter and K-9 unit to try to find the man, who was wearing a red cloth over his face, Officer Kenneth Reichard told The Associated Press.

Campus Police Chief David Donaldson told the AP the alert was issued as a "precautionary measure." The suspect was carrying a small-caliber handgun, Donaldson said.In August, another situation involving a gunman on campus raised concerns from university officials who said the school's emergency alert system failed to properly notify the campus as police searched for a man accused of a shooting in a nearby apartment complex.

After the shooting, Donaldson ordered a campus-wide alert via phone, text message and email to warn the community about the armed man on the loose. The alert was never sent.

Officials said at the time the lapse appeared to be a case of human error rather than a technical problem…

A Waiting Game

2:12 a.m. Homepage, UNCW Alert site and other web-based tools are updated

with new time 

2:33 a.m. Police continue to search campus, but the scent of the suspect has been

lost UNCW Police requests that no more messages be sent until more

information is available MaC continues to receive numerous local and national media calls UNCW Police Chief continues to be interviewed by CNN and other media 

2:45 a.m. Homepage, UNCW Alert site and other web-based tools are updated

with new time

The All Clear

5:00 a.m. It is determined that and “all clear” will be called and classes will

continue

5:19 a.m. “All Clear” message sent via all communication tools Similar information is shared with media; media calls begin to

flood in again  

The Next Morning

7:15 a.m. UNCW Police Chief has been interviewed by more than 15 media outlets

9:28 a.m. 600+ media outlets around the world have covered the incident; most

are favorable Corrections are requested for the few inaccurate media stories Multiple media calls are still streaming in; several media interviews

have lined up for the remainder of the day

What happened after the incident?

After Action Review

Considerations

Constant communication about actions taken and situation Answering media calls Social media monitoring iReporting Getting message details and approval Monitoring situation updates Handling on-scene media Controlling external messages Logging After action

Lessons Learned

                                                      Frequency of messages – all clear wasn’t given until 5:15

a.m. Staffing – redundancy, night vs. day incidents (most have

been in the late evening hours) Law enforcement communications Media training/preparation Communication between emergency

response groups Amount of time to send

a message (cycle) Exercising the plan

Blackboard Connect 5

QuestionsKevin Madsen, Emergency Management

Office: (910) 962-7874 Email: madsenk@uncw.edu

Joy Davis, Media Relations Specialist (formerly)

Office: (910) 916-8603 Email: davisjoyc@gmail.com

To Request a Demo of Blackboard Connect 5

http://connect.blackboard.com/democonnect

Text BBDEMO to 97178

May 8, 2012Blackboard Conference: University of North Carolina Wilmington Presentation