Editorial | Pitt Police must do better with emergency notifications

Over this past weekend, three major crimes took place on and around Pitt’s campus and on Duquesne University’s campus. Students who heard the news from friends and family members or social media applications like X, formerly known as Twitter, eagerly awaited for Pitt’s Emergency Notification System to tell us to stay clear of the sites. But no notifications ever came.

Earlier in the day on Friday, Aug. 30, a call from the Carnegie Museum, right across the street from the Cathedral of Learning, came in stating that the caller had been shot in the leg. Shortly after that same day, two Pitt students were attacked outside the Cathedral of Learning. 

The Pitt Police were able to apprehend the suspect, and the University issued a statement later that day regarding the event. No notifications were sent out to students and other subscribers during either of the events on Friday.

On Saturday, Aug. 31, there was a shooting near Duquesne University’s campus in the Downtown neighborhood of Pittsburgh. Three people were shot, with one killed, in a shooting at the Shell gas station on Fifth Avenue and Marion Street. At the time of this publication, no one has been taken into custody in connection with the shooting. There was no ENS alert sent out during or after this incident.

During the 2022-2023 school year, there was an alleged shooter in the Oakland campus’ Hillman Library. Videos taken from bystanders show students racing out of the library in droves, all fearful for their lives. Gunshots had been heard, as shots were fired by police officers to get into the building, but fortunately, the incident was a hoax and there was no threat inside the library. However, the traumatic event highlighted a broad and pervasive failing of the University of Pittsburgh’s police department — there was not a single ENS alert sent out in regard to the potential threat. Students were understandably outraged with the University and their poor response to the situation. Ever since then, our University — we believed — had been taking steps to improve its notification delivery system and there were few complaints in the subsequent 2023-2024 school year.

After the various incidents this weekend, students across campus and those who remember the Hillman incident years ago are rightfully distraught. The lack of ENS from the Pitt Police and University is completely unacceptable and has the potential to put students’ lives at risk. 

This past year, students were getting ENS notifications religiously about the campus protests and other potential threats, none of which presented or culminated in violence. But when real threats are on and around our campus where real people, including our very own Pitt students, are getting hurt, the Emergency Notification System did not hit a single soul’s phone or email.

The University of Pittsburgh and the Pitt Police’s number one priority should be its students’ safety. But the lack of ENS alerts this weekend certainly does not make students feel safe on campus. We must continue holding Pitt to a higher standard and hold it accountable for the lack of communication it demonstrated this weekend. There is no price too high to pay for students’ safety in this country, and sending out an ENS to ensure students are in their homes safely should really be no price at all.