ABIGAIL JACOBSON
Special to The Leader
News about mass shootings has been shared all over the media in the past few years. We’ve seen them happening at a Tops supermarket, at a sweet 16 party, at an elementary school and other places in the U.S. This situation can happen anywhere, at any time.
What if this were to happen on SUNY Fredonia’s campus?
Chief of University Police Brent Isaacson discussed how SUNY Fredonia would respond.
Isaacson said he believes the last time someone came onto campus with a gun was 10 to 15 years ago.
“Typically, young men would hang their hunting rifles on a rack in a pickup truck,” said Isaacson who believed this was the situation that occurred.
Isaacson said that by law, the only people that can legally carry a firearm on campus are police officers. If an incident ever occurred, it would generate an immediate response.
In the case of an active shooter on campus, Isaacson said that every police officer in the county would be notified of the situation. Neighboring police departments, such as the Village of Fredonia and Dunkirk police, would help provide backup.
“I’m sure … within a minute or two at the most [there would] be a couple or three or four University Police officers surrounding that person,” Isaacson said.
If the Village of Fredonia police or Dunkirk Police Department needed UP’s help with a situation, UP would provide backup for them. UP would assess the situation and make sure the campus is safe first.
If the Village of Fredonia or Dunkirk were to experience something like this, and UP had concerns that the danger would make its way to campus, he said UP would prepare to keep the campus community safe.
“We’d start to secure the campus and get people in the best, most expedient way we could [and] get people behind closed doors until the danger passes,” Isaacson said.
SUNY Fredonia has a total of nine police officers, four lieutenants, three dispatchers, a clerical assistant, an administrative assistant and a chief of police.
Every day, there are three police officers on duty. Two are on the road, patrolling the campus while one is back in the dispatch room looking through the cameras, taking calls and being there in case of an emergency.
Isaacson said we have about 300 cameras on Fredonia’s campus. They are mainly stationed outside the residence halls, around all the buildings and in parking lots.
“98% of the campus is covered by a camera,” Isaacson said.
These cameras can move around and have high resolution. This aspect can help provide UP with the ability to get license plate numbers, figure out someone’s identity and help protect our campus community.
If SUNY Fredonia had an incident where someone came onto campus with a firearm, UP has had training and drills in place that have helped prepare them.
UP officers go through Close Quarters Battle (CQB) training. CQB provides instruction to law enforcement on proven techniques to successfully act in an active shooter situation.
University Police go through CQB training 3 to 4 times per year. They also do firearm training twice a year. They use the techniques they learn from this training to prepare if an armed intruder threatens campus.
“We just had a training a few months ago in Jewett Hall, where we brought in an outside FBI expert on how to breach [closed] doors and barricaded doors and unlock doors,” Isaacson said.
While there are no shelter-in-place drills at SUNY Fredonia as there are in most K-12 schools, UP does offer training for faculty, students and the community. This training is called “Run, Hide, Fight.”
“Run, Hide, Fight” is exactly what it sounds like. For more information, go to Fredonia’s University Police Department (UPD) page. On that page, you will see a video on the “Run, Hide, Fight” training.
“I would encourage [the campus community] to watch it,” Isaacson said.
If an incident happens on our campus, UP will send out an announcement through the loudspeakers on the campus. The officer present in the dispatch room can make the announcement.
“We have a script up there that will be read over the… loudspeaker system [and we] will also put out a New York alert. That’s part of our immediate action [plan],” Isaacson said.
We also have blue light phones. These are located all around campus. Isaacson said the blue light phones can be used for emergencies, non-emergencies and any needs a student may have.
Whether you see someone who has a weapon, or even if you get locked out of your car, Isaacson encourages you to call UP or press the blue light button.
“I would encourage [using] them if you need to get a hold of the University Police. I do not care how you do it … There’s not a wrong way to do it.” Isaacson said. “If you call the University Police and it turns out to be a big nothingburger, [a false alarm], … That’s just fine.”
SUNY Fredonia wants to provide the campus community with safety tips to ensure that students and faculty are safe on a daily basis. Click the links below for more information on how to stay safe.
“The last thing our officers want to see is a hair on any student’s head getting hurt … That is a big, big deal to any of them,” Isaacson said. “So I think all of them have that kind of Mama Bear gene … that nobody’s going to hurt the students, not while we are here.”
Main website: university-police
NY-Alert Messaging System: ny-alert-messaging-system
RAVE Guardian: rave-guardian-app
Blue Light Phones: bluelight
Emergency response procedures: emergency-response-procedures