Campus Security Promotes Emergency Preparedness

EAST PEORIA — The slaughter of 20 children and six adults at a Newtown, Conn. school has affected almost everyone’s perception of violence in schools, said Illinois Central College’s Campus Police Chief, Tom Larson.

“Its really raised the level of awareness,” Larson continued, “and it has really made people think twice.”

ICC student Kim Donley, 26 of Peoria, said, “It’s frightened a lot of us, because you never know if the same thing could happen where we’re at. It’s scary to go to school everyday and know that it could happen anywhere.”

Thus far, ICC has been fortunate not to have a so-called “critical incident” occur on campus, one that would endanger the lives of many. Larson commented, saying, “We can’t predict when one of these things is going to affect our campus, so we are taking steps to be as prepared as we can in the event that a critical event does happen.”

So far in the spring semester, several steps have been taken to make the campus as safe as possible, including the implementation of a new emergency alert system, contracted by Rave Alert.

According to ICC’s Dean of Student Services, Guy Goodman, the system will generate notifications via text message, email or phone call, to students and faculty per their request. Cases of emergency would include snow days, power outages on campus and worst case, if a critical event were to occur on campus.

“This is a unique opportunity to spend money hopefully never to use a service,” said Goodman. “It’s part of emergency preparedness.”

Chief Larson believes another part of emergency preparedness is establishing a partnership with other police forces in the area. “We’re working with other police departments and agencies to try to standardize response. We would set down some guidelines so that if we had an incident at ICC, they would already be prepared to respond with assistance.”

Attempting to hire more armed, sworn police officers to work on each campus when there are students or employees present is another facet Larson believes will enhance campus security. Currently ICC has six armed, sworn police officers, a significant improvement from four years ago when ICC had none.

“We have a very good campus security program with a lot of very fine campus security officers,” said Larson. “However, in a critical incident, such as an active shooter, there is no substitute for an armed, sworn police officer to be on campus and ready to respond to it.”

Before the start of the spring semester, Larson gave a security update to all faculty members in which he recommended that all faculty members take precaution by implementing preparedness in the classroom.

Ken Mellendorf, instructor in the Math, Science and Engineering Department, took Larson’s recommendation seriously by taking the time at the beginning of the semester to point out the nearest exit route out of the building, the closest landline telephone and the AED machines to his students and assign them roles in the case of any type of emergency. “I figured it would make the students a little more calm in such a situation if they knew that somebody was already covering the problem,” said Mellendorf.

Larson petitions students and faculty to do their part in keeping the campus safe by reporting any person who seems troubled to an officer immediately.

“Students, staff and faculty can feel confident that the campus safety and security department is taking steps to enhance that security that we already have,” said Larson. “We’re not static; we’re not just sitting still and hoping something doesn’t happen.”