» Emergency Notification Policy

Upon confirmation of a significant emergency or dangerous threat involving an immediate threat to the health or safety of students or employees occurring on or near the campus, Public Safety will take into account the safety of the campus community, determine what information to release about the situation, and begin the notification process using the Panther Alert Mass Notification System.. The only reason we would not immediately issue a notification for a confirmed emergency or dangerous situation is if doing so would compromise efforts to: assist a victim, contain the emergency, or otherwise mitigate the emergency. This could include a request from the local police or fire department to delay the message for these purposes. Confirmation of threats is made by a dispatched Public Safety Officer or by information received from local police/fire authorities. If it is determined that notifications are to be made, the Chief, Captain, or their designee shall notify the dispatcher and initiate the notification. The Emergency Notification System and Panther Alert will be tested at least once per academic year. All community members are automatically in the system to be contacted via Chapman email. It is the responsibility of students, staff, and faculty to register their mobile devices and phone numbers in Panther Alert in order to receive text messaging, phone calls or voicemail messages.

The Panther Alert Mass Notification System

• Will only be used when there is a severe threat to public safety and health of the entire campus that has not been contained or controlled and when immediate action is required on the part of the recipient group(s), (e.g. chemical spills impacting public health, active shooters, etc.)

• Will not be used for non-emergency notifications such as crime updates, inclement weather closings, localized building closures, situations that have been contained, situations where a threat does not exist, rumor control, or situations where notification is merely a convenience.

The Chief of Public Safety or a designee will develop timely warning notices for the University Community to notify members of the community about serious crimes against people that occur on campus, where it is determined that the incident may pose an ongoing threat to members of the University community. Timely Warning Notices are usually distributed for the following Uniformed Crime Reporting Program (UCR)/National Incident Based Reporting System (NIBRS) classifications: arson, criminal homicide, and robbery. Cases of aggravated assault and sex offenses are considered on a case-by-case basis, depending on the facts of the case and the information known by Public Safety. For example, if an assault occurs between two students who have a disagreement, there may be no on-going threat to other University community members, therefore; a Timely Warning Notice would not be distributed. Sexual assaults are considered on a case-by-case basis depending on the facts of the case, when and where the incident occurred, when it was reported, and the amount of information known by the Department of Public Safety. Timely Warning Notices may be distributed for other crimes as determined necessary by the Chief or his or her designee in his or her absence. Timely Warning Notices are distributed via email to all Chapman community members’ Chapman email addresses (username@mail.chapman.edu or username@chapman.edu accounts).