Concerns about the lack of warning after an incident on campus last Thursday and the inconsistency of the 1st2know system prompted SCCCD police to turn to twitter to get emergency alerts to the college community.
“We now have a twitter feed . . . @SCCCDPolice,” Bruce Hartman, chief of SCCCD police said. “That is where we are going to be putting things out for safety alerts and notifications, and this is basically what we are basically going to be replacing the entire 1st2know system with.”
Hartman said the new system could be notify the entire campus “in about 15 seconds”. “We feel a bit more confident with [the twitter], so we are going to be working more with that as a notification tool.”
Last Thursday, at about 1:30 p.m., two males in the FCC Student Services financial aid office, made threats about returning with a handgun and then left the campus. To date, no one knows who the men are or their whereabouts.
At 3:14 p.m., FCC president Tony Cantu, stated in an email to faculty and staff that “A designated officer is patrolling the area around the Student Services Building.”
No alerts went out to 1st2know subscriber, igniting new concerns about the efficacy of the emergency notification system.
But this incident as well as the on-campus shooting incident on Oct. 14, 2013 are leading some to question how the police and administration responded this time.
“There wasn’t a threat to anybody. There was no gun on campus,” Cantu said. “The student just threatened that he was going to go off campus and come back.”
Hartman said he feels the police responded well to the situation.
“We had our first officer there in less than 30 seconds and four officers there in less than a minute,” Hartman said.
Police are still investigating the situation and using a variety of resources to search for both of the suspects in this case.
“If he comes back into the office in anyway, or if any of them see him because they know what he looks like, they will let us know,” Hartman said. “But we also have officers out and about, but we are using all of our resources to identify this individual.”
