Over the past weekend, several Ivy League universities received bomb threats. On Friday, a bomb threat at Yale forced the evacuation of some buildings and some nearby businesses, and on Sunday, Brown, Cornell and Columbia alerted students to the bomb threat and evacuated some campus buildings. These threats were unfounded and passed without incident. Also, over the weekend, two universities in Ohio – Miami University and Ohio University – also received false bomb threats.
According to data from the U.S. Bomb Data Center (USBDC), a division of the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), bomb threats decreased 25 percent in 2020, with assembly, education, residential and office/business emerging as the top four targets of these threats last year. The number of reported incidents targeting education facilities decreased by more than half since 2019.
Although bomb threats and actual bombings on college campuses are thankfully uncommon, many colleges and universities have emergency protocols to deal with bomb threats and have included instructions on how to handle a bomb threat on their websites. The University of Connecticut, for instance, provides detailed instructions for students, faculty and staff on what to do before, during and after an active bomb threat situation. Indiana University has similar bomb threat information on its site, along with a checklist of things to keep in mind when students or staff receive a call, so they may be more likely to provide useful information to law enforcement.
How can you protect your students, faculty, staff and facilities? Security Magazine offers the following top 10 bomb threat response tips for higher education:
- Keep your plans confidential. Only share your protocols with relevant entities so you don’t provide potential aggressors with your vital information that they can use to their advantage.
- Customize general plans to your individual location. Any potential aggressor can read law enforcement guidelines. You can thwart bomb threats by tailoring your plans to your specific layouts, natural and manmade barriers, for instance.
- Vary the routine. Rotate between primary and secondary evacuation locations in training and actual responses.
- Use technology to evacuate your location faster and more effectively. Don’t worry about activating an explosive device with technology information transmitting devices and prioritize evacuation. Consider using a satellite phone in case the cellular system collapses after an evacuation.
- Implement National Incident Management System and Incident Command System principles with your team to make sure you’re making sound decisions and optimally manage any active bomb threat situation.
- Train your team. Practice under various circumstances to ensure that your personnel can effectively evacuate under fluctuating staffing and occupancy levels and available managers.
- Keep your team informed. Make sure all employees are familiar with the signs of a suspicious package or piece of mail. Keep a bomb threat call sheet handy.
- Create a crisis response team. Meet monthly to review various response protocols, train on varying scenarios and make sure your response to a variety is proactive and effective.
- Assemble a crisis response equipment bag. Include a list of building occupants, blueprints and building layouts, a bullhorn, whistles, caution tape, safety vests and medical/trauma kit. Create a coded and encrypted flash memory card with occupant and building data and make sure a team member always carries it.
- Forge relationships with area entities for mutual support. You can coordinate responses, and in some cases, you may be able to evacuate to a nearby secure building to keep your population away from a potential aggressor.
You can get more background and information on how to proactively plan for potential bomb threats. The U.S. Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency offers detailed information on what to do if your institution receives a bomb threat or finds a suspicious item on campus. The agency also offers guidance for facility owners, operators and managers that can inform higher education institutions’ plans.
For additional information, download the Department of Homeland Security – Department of Justice Bomb Threat Guide