Hailey Nelson
News Editor
Early on Nov. 10, the emergency notification system of Idaho State University seemed to be delayed. An incident involving a local man running from police after sexual assault had occurred, but the timing of the alert notification and the actual event did not seem to line up. The ISU community buzzed with questions and concerns over the timeliness of the notification and the safety of campus, and many looked to the Public Safety Office with worried judgement.
What appeared to be a lack of response from Public Safety made students, faculty, and many others lose faith in its protection. Campus Security seemed to be shirking their responsibilities.
This narrative was one lacking perspective. Lewis Eakins, Public Safety’s Chief Security Officer, wants to affirm to students and other ISU community members that he and his team were far from slacking.
“Without the students, we wouldn’t need to really be here,” said Eakins. “We need to make sure that the students are safe.”
On what Eakins described as “that fateful Sunday,” Public Safety’s involvement in the Eric Chavez chase Nov. 10 was not limited to sending out emergency alerts. Eakins, Vince Likes (Assistant Director of Public Safety), and Christopher Boyce (Emergency Manager) were all present at the office that morning doing their best to tackle the imminent threat facing the campus.
“The Pocatello Police Department contacted our officer,” said Likes, “and he then contacted me at home. I called Director Lewis and our emergency manager… and we agreed that we were all going to start for the office.”
The trio arrived and immediately began checking feedback on the incident going on outside. Once the first notification had been sent out to the ISU community, the three agreed to meet up at the office again at 10 A.M. to send out an update on the situation, whether resolved or still at large. It was the events that followed that delayed the campus’ updates on the situation. The suspect had returned to the area.
“The next thing I know, the city police had started arriving to the area,” said Likes. “The suspect started running away from us, we were watching, and I saw him from my window.”
At that point, Likes called for Eakins.
“I said, ‘he’s on the run, he’s running,’” said Likes. “We went out and started to give chase.”
In coordination with the Pocatello Police Department, Public Safety members prioritized the chasing of the suspect, which led to his capture under the hypostyle of the Pond Student Union Building. Only after he was caught did they have the chance to let the campus know that the threat had been resolved.
Public Safety has three different types of notifications for those enrolled to receive them. Nicole White, Clery Compliance Coordinator of Public Safety, described each of them.
The first is an emergency notification, which was sent out Nov. 10 when Chavez was still on the loose. White described the situations which emergency notifications would call for.
“Those [notifications] are triggered by situations that are dangerous or posing some sort of imminent threat to the campus,” said White.
The second type of notifications are timely warnings, which White described to be triggered by crimes either reported on or near campus. If something is to pose serious or continuing danger to campus, these notifications will be sent out. Often, these alerts are accompanied with safety tips.
Safety advisories are the third type of alert.
“Safety advisories are triggered by any type of alert that we feel is serious enough that we need to let students and employees know about, but it maybe didn’t rise to the level of either a timely warning or emergency notification,” said White.
The organized system that Public Safety implements is documented each time officers and executives respond to some sort of danger, afterwards to be reflected upon and scrutinized for improvement.
“It does seem like we waited until 10:30 to send out this update,” said Eakins.
He affirmed, however, that Public Safety is not dragging their feet. In fact, the office is implementing many new tools of safety, including Creep Alert date rape drug tests, which allow students to carry around drug-testing cards in their pockets. They are also organizing a much-anticipated event, Operation Safe Travel, which will take place at the Holt arena on Nov. 21. Its goal is to eliminate car troubles before students’ journeys home for Thanksgiving.
“The campus community will see more of these types of notifications,” said Eakins. “We want to hear about it the same time you do.”
