The Daily Tar Heel
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The Daily Tar Heel

TO THE EDITOR:
The Nov. 10 story and chart leave the wrong impression that our Alert Carolina notifications were created to notify the campus about every reported crime. That’s not true.

We use three alert types — an emergency warning where the sirens sound for a significant or dangerous situation; a timely warning where text messages are sent so people can protect themselves or property from Clery Act crimes; and informational notification where emails are sent for less urgent situations.

A timely warning means there is a continuing danger affecting the campus and notification will not compromise law enforcement efforts. Timely warnings can be issued for reports of a homicide, sex offense, robbery or a tornado watch issued for Orange County, but that doesn’t mean we’ll send a text message about every crime.

For an informational notification, we’ll send an email — not a text — about a health or safety issue, but doesn’t pose an immediate threat.

To help you understand the three types of alerts, the plan is online at http://alertcarolina.unc.edu with a poster showing how we’ll communicate for each alert type.

We’re working on another educational poster providing additional guidance about what to do if the sirens sound when you’re in a classroom. That will be distributed soon.

The emergency plan is a guide. The unexpected may happen. We can’t plan ahead for every scenario. Our plan relies on the experience and judgment of those entrusted by the University to carry it out. We know there will always be room for improvement because emergency plans constantly evolve.

Jeff McCracken
Director
Department of Public Safety

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