The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign is a very safe campus. However, no community is completely immune from crime. Incidents which may pose an ongoing public safety risk will happen from time to time.
It is our philosophy that an informed campus is a safer campus, which is why the University Police Department is committed to keeping community members updated on public safety issues so they can take actions that can help keep themselves or others safe. We call these notifications Campus Safety Notices.
A federal law called the Clery Act dictates when we can and cannot send a Campus Safety Notice, although we often go beyond the requirements of federal law in our efforts to make campus community members aware of significant crimes. When a significant crime occurs on campus and presents an ongoing threat to campus safety, a Campus Safety Notice is delivered as quickly as possible after that crime has been reported to University Police.
Notices are automatically delivered to anyone with a campus email address. Those without a campus email address must sign up to receive them. Family members or friends of students can sign up to receive Campus Safety Notices at go.illinois.edu/notices.
For crimes that are reported immediately, the notice is sent promptly after the crime has occurred. However, not all crimes are immediately reported to police by victims or witnesses. The delay in a reporting sometimes leads to a longer period of time between when the crime occurred and when a Campus Safety Notice is delivered. This is one of the reasons why we stress to our community members the importance of promptly reporting suspicious activity and crime to police.
The notice will include details about the incident, a suspect description when available, and safety tips for students and others so they can take steps to protect themselves. University Police always report the relevant details of the crime which may be useful to community members to keep themselves safe.
Because these notices are generated so quickly after a crime is reported, the police may not have all the details at the time the notice is sent. Often, crime victims are unable to provide a useful description of suspects, which means that police may not have a description to include in the notice. In cases of sexual assault, police may withhold specific details about the incident to protect the identity of the sexual assault survivor and to safeguard that person from experiencing further psychological trauma or retaliation – unless those details are important for community members to keep themselves safe.
Campus Safety Notices are separate from Illini-Alert emails and text messages, which are generated in any situation which poses an immediate risk to campus safety – like fires, severe weather, active threats, or anything else. Anyone can sign up for Illini-Alert messages by texting “IlliniAlert” to 226787.
These are just a couple of the ways we keep our campus informed. Please feel encouraged to visit our website at police.illinois.edu to learn more, or follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. You can learn more about the university’s Clery Act efforts at police.illinois.edu/clery.