Bomb Threat Photos

A faint "LIBRARY" scrawled in pen above the BUILDING CLOSED sign on the SAC doors leading across the courtyard to the library.











The DePaul library remains shuttered after a bomb threat at 11:30 A.M. this morning.

No Alerts for DePaul Students

If there is a bomb on my campus, I want to know - so I can make sure not to GO to campus and get myself bombed. Makes sense, right?

So where was DePaul's message alert system during Thursday's bomb threat? We were supposed to receive phone, text message, and e-mail alerts if something major happened on campus - a bomb threat seems major to me.

We also have the message boards in all the classrooms - why didn't those go off, telling us to evacuate?

Public Safety is keeping quiet as the case is still under investigation.

At 12:50 P.M. a Public Safety nameless spokesperson told me that it was Media Relations decision not to utilize the service. When I called Denise Mattson, head of PR, she told me that they had used the electronic message board system. Because the threat was relatively small, - no classes in the building, only one building, and because Public Safety and the CPD were there to personally help people leave the library. The DPU Alert system alerts 30,000 people simultaneously - DePaul tries to only use that service in life-threatening situations, like the gas leak down in the Loop. For that, the People's Gas and Public Safety people needed time to understand how it was going to impact the campus. The leak began at 5 A.M., and at 7 A.M., the departments decided to shut down the buildings - namely the DePaul Center and CDM, becuase 1,000s of people would have been in the area, and that could have been a life threatening situation.

The contrast to the library is that there was a smaller population at risk and the CPD and Public Safety were personally on hand, said Mattson.

Library evacuated due to bomb threat

As of 11:30 A.M. on Thursday, Feb. 19, the Richardson Library on DePaul's Lincoln Park campus was evacuated due to a bomb threat.

A news release posted on the University Web site said the following:

DePaul’s Richardson Library Evacuated




Chicago Police and DePaul University Public Safety officers began a precautionary evacuation of DePaul’s Richardson Library, 2350 N. Kenmore Ave., at 11:30 a.m. today in response to a bomb threat. The Police Bomb and Arson Unit and Public Safety are searching the building, which is expected to be closed until at least mid-afternoon.

At this time no other buildings are affected and classes and activities in all other Lincoln Park facilities will continue as scheduled.

For updates, check DePaul’s home page at http://depaul.edu.

Members of the DePaul community are advised not to call the university operator or other DePaul offices for information. All updates will be posted on the Web.


The threat is still under investigation, so no details have been released at this point. I will attempt to update this post as I get them.

Stay Safe at DePaul!

The DePaul Public Safety office has recently published a list of tips to help students stay safe on and off campus. They've posted the bright blue flyers on dorm and library doors, and encourage students to take notice. Some of the tips include:

• When jogging, have a route already planned out so you know where you're going and how to get back. Stay on well-lit streets.


• When shopping, keep your wallet or pocketbook in your pocket. Carry only the cash or credit cards you need.


• Utilize the escort service between 6 P.M. and 6 A.M. if you are travelling between buildings on the Lincoln Park campus


• Travel in groups.


• Be aware of your surroundings

A full list of tips can be found on the flyers around campus - check it out so you know how to stay safe - some of the tips may be information you haven't encountered before.

Read those Safety Alerts!

The image you see above is a Safety Alert - issued by Public Safety when a crime happens on campus. They're posted on all the dorms and buildings on campus so that students will see and read them. Normally, they are very brightly colored - neon blue, yellow, pink, the particular safety alert above, when posted on campus, is actually blue, but Public Safety could not release the blue form to me (they only had one copy, so the officer just copied this one on white paper for me.) I could've stolen one from the library or U-Hall doors, but that would have been, yep, a crime.
The Safety Alerts are part of Public Safety’s “Protection, Prevention, Education” model to make students aware of crimes on campus. The crime reports list the what, where, and when of a crime (i.e. assault, robbery,) and give information on who to contact if you have any information about the crime – either the Chicago Police Department at 311 or the DePaul Public Safety office at 773-325-7777.The crime on this report was a hate crime that took place in the 2100 block of N. Kenmore at 4:00 A.M. on February 3, 2009. The alert was posted on Feb. 6.A man was attacked by three “unknown individuals,” and during the attack, the men made comments about the victim’s sexual orientation – making it a hate crime.The three-day delay in between the incident and the report concerns me. I think it shows us that we need to instantly report something when crimes happen to us or someone we know, so that other students or DePaul community members are not harmed. So, like the Chicago Transit Authority’s slogan, “if you see something, say something.” It’ll keep us all safe.

So, what do you think of Public Safety?

This interview was done as a project for Professor Tracy Samatha Schmidt's Online Journalism 1 course. I interviewed Heidi, a junior journalism student, and Brendan, a junior digital cinema student, about their views on the Public Safety department at DePaul University. Based on their experiences - Brendan has used the department's car escort service in freezing temperatures and while intoxicated; and Heidi has used it for rides home after night class and for help when a friend was attacked - the two had a lot of interesting things to say regarding the department, but no real ideas on how to improve the department or its alerts so that more students would pay attention.

Here's the YouTube link to the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=id7TBD9TEuI

Meet Maureen Greene

Maureen Greene has worked at DePaul University for 16 years. For 13 of those years, she has worked as the head sergeant of crime prevention on campus. She's the face you meet during the safety presentation at orientation (where yes, they tell you they will pick you up and drive you back to your dorm when you are intoxicated,) and often, she is the woman who answers the phone at the Lincoln Park campus hotline, 773.325.7777.

"The most rewarding part is helping new freshman make the transition to college," says Greene. "But when they have a hard transition, or their parents have a hard time, then it becomes a problem."

Greene recalled a memorable moment on campus where she really felt she made a difference at DePaul. "The most memorable day was 9-11, trying to help students, parents and my own family in a very difficult moment of this country.  We had students from New York who were worried about their families and like everyone

else Public Safety is the 24 hour hub for information."

Greene had some interesting points about what Public Safety has done well and has not done well. "I think are personal interest and commitment to each individual student is very important to parents and students and we do this well.  I alsofeel our Escort Service is very unique in regards to other universities," referring to the escort car service that the department provides. I think in every job there is always room for improvement it is
sometimes difficult to get people to think in a different way, and still
try to keep the same services," says Greene.

For the number one thing students should know about Public Safety, it is that Public Safety is available to help DePaul students 24/7.

A New Look at University Crime - ucrime.com

UCrime.com offers listings of campus and city crimes for university students.

This image is a screen shot of the Chicago Crime Map I found on ucrime.com - a university/city based crime categorization Web site.

The idea for this post came to me from a comment I received on my blog - a man named Colin asked me if I'd seen this Web site: www.ucrime.com, and told me that they tracked crime on college campuses. I had never heard of the Web site before and decided to check it out, so I clicked on the link. Self-advertised as "the most comprehensive online source of crime information, [with] local maps, crime reports and classifications, [and] real-time interactive maps."

The Web site has listings for all 50 U.S. states and some universities in Canada, and includes crime maps, local statistics, and crime alerts. In Illinois, the university pages they include are: Bradley University, DePaul University, Illinois State, Loyola University Chicago, Northern Illinois University, Northwestern, Southern, SIU-Carbondale, Southwestern, UIC, and University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign. The Illinois link also has a larger "Chicago Crime Map" link. There, users can type in an address and put in a date range, and look for all of the following crimes, or select a few. The crime categories you can search for are: Arrest, Arson, Assault, Burglary, Robbery, Shooting, Theft, Vandalism, and Other. The categories have little icons as well, which I laughed at. For example, arson is a little flame, arrest is a tiny pair of handcuffs, assualt is a fist, burglary is a person in a ski mask, robbery is a person running with a bag, shooting is a viewfinder icon and vandalism is a little shield. I searched for crime near my home from January 30 - Feb 6, and found out that there was one instance of assault near my home - at DePaul's Sanctuary Residence Hall.

The DePaul Crime Map itself was pretty interesting - it had tabs for the different crime categories, and included things that happened at both the Loop and Lincoln Park Campuses.

In the last week, from 1/30 to 2/6/09 there was an arrest at the Sullivan Athletic Center and an assault at Sanctuary Hall.

The map offers a clean and clear way to see where things are happening in your area, and the little icons really help you focus in.

Users can also sign up to get crime reports about their campus or state.

In addition to the Crime Map, there are links to report a crime and a UCrime blog. The link I found most interesting was under "About Us." It said, "Do you want to be a crime reporter for your university?" and then offered a link to register your name and e-mail and write a message to the Baltimore, MD based site.

All in all, the site is an interesting, helpful look at crime. I'm still partial to The DePaulia's blotter, but for a different look, check out www.ucrime.com.

Decoding the Blotter

In order for DePaul students to keep track of the different crimes on campus - from which student dorms had people illegally smoking or drinking last night, to bigger incidents, like assaults or robberies on campus, the Public Safety Department puts together a weekly blotter.

I'm going to put it in here and explain it to you, but you can also check it out every week in The DePaulia, (DePaul's student run-newspaper for which I just happen to be the Two Cents Editor. Yep. Shameless plug, right there in my blog: Read our paper!)

Back to the blotter. On the Public Safety Web site, I was able to get a rundown of the crimes that happened last week in Lincoln Park:

January 28 Lot H Theft of Vehicle
January 28 1150 W. Fullerton Criminal Damage
January 28 University Hall Fire Alarm
January 29 S.A.C. Elevator Entrapment
January 29 900 W. Belden Suspicion of Marijuana
January 30 Munroe Hall Suspicious Activity
January 30 S.A.C. Criminal Damage
January 30 Sanctuary Hall Harassment
January 31 Byrne Hall Fire Alarm
*Reports are not all verified

Here's the Loop crimes:

January 28 DePaul Center Theft
January 28 DePaul Center Criminal Trespass
January 31 DePaul Center Retail Theft
*Reports are not all verified

The Web site just has a listing of all the crimes, but if you check out The DePaulia (comes out every Friday afternoon,) you'll find a fancy map of Lincoln Park with every building on campus and with crime listings for the week. Unfortunately, I don't have a scanner so I cannot show you what the blotter looks like - but to describe - a campus map with a key describing each building (i.e. library, Seton Hall, S.A.C.) and then a listing of crimes. Pretty nifty - and it helps keep you updated on what happened where and when.

For more serious alerts - like robberies at gunpoint or assaults, Safety Alert flyers are posted around campus - on dorms and buildings, these brightly-colored pieces of paper describe the incident, list a description of the offender if one was given, and offer contact information for who to contact at the police department should you have any information.