Know what to do in an emergency

National Night Out

DALLAS (SMU) – Tuesday, Oct. 4, is National Night Out, and SMU students, faculty and staff will gather on the Main Quad from 4-7 PM to share food, refreshments, and emergency and safety information.  This year, the observance of National Night Out will include an active shooter simulation at 5:30 p.m., directly in front of McFarlin Auditorium. 

The goal of the simulation is to make the campus community aware of actions they can take for their own safety in the event of an active shooter incident on our campus, and will be be based on the “Run, Hide, Fight” protocol endorsed by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. While SMU police and other campus emergency personnel are well-trained to respond to campus emergencies, they stress that individual knowledge and training can save lives.   SMU students, faculty and staff can view basic information about all the University’s emergency procedures, as well as videos that explain what to do in the event of an active shooter or a weather emergency, at www.smu.edu/emergency. 

SMU has organized other active shooter drills in recent years, but this will be the first produced outdoors.  The SMU Police Department hopes that hosting the active shooter simulation on National Night Out will draw larger attendance and encourage students to share what they learn. September is National Preparedness Month, and the University has over the past few weeks shared a series of public service messages via social media encouraging students to take a few simple steps toward their own safety – such as loading the phone number for SMU police (214-768-3333) into their cell phones and visiting the smu.edu/emergency website.  You can see these video messages, and learn more about emergency preparedness, at  http://www.smu.edu/News/2016/preparedness-sept2016.

September Reminds Us to 'Be Prepared'

SMU is asking the campus community to take an active role throughout September, National Preparedness Month, to learn how best to respond to potentially dangerous campus emergencies.

During National Preparedness Month, sponsored by the U.S.  Department of Homeland Security, the University’s Emergency Management team will help students, faculty and staff plan for their own safe response in the event of a campus emergency. Some of the most important resources can be found online at smu.edu/emergency, including short videos that instruct how to react if the University issues an alert to lockdown, evacuate or seek shelter. There also is a video for faculty.

In addition, you are urged to add the SMU Police Department's number to your phone's list of contacts: 214-768-3333

If You See Something, Say Something

The SMU Police Department asks the University community to help make the campus safer by being more aware of their surroundings and reporting anything – or anyone – suspicious.

Suspicious activities include:

• A person loitering in parking lots, garages or building hallways
• Someone you don’t recognize attempting to enter restricted areas of a building
• Someone you don’t recognize following you or others into a residence hall
• Someone you don’t recognize taking pictures of or sketching structures
• Unattended, abandon or unusual-looking vehicles parked for prolong periods of time in the same location
• Someone asking questions about security procedures

Suspicious packages include:

• An unattended backpack, briefcase or luggage left in public or high-traffic areas
• A package, envelope or device that looks suspicious, seems out of place or cannot  be readily identified 

Download the flier.