Parkland

Mass Notification System – Parkland Alerts (2023 Annual Security Report)

ILAnnual Security ReportParkland Alertshigh confidence

Parkland College documents Parkland Alerts in its 2023 ASR with four message categories (Emergency Notification, Timely Warning, Safety Notice, Information Notice), automatic enrollment at registration/employment, and multi-channel delivery including networked computers and Cobravision monitors.

Read the official policy

Institution

Parkland College

Community College · IL

~8,000 studentsParkland Alerts

In the policy’s own words

What the policy says

Automatic enrollmentverbatim

When a person registers for classes or begins employment they are automatically enrolled in this service with the information they provided.

Auto-enrollment at registration or hire.

Parkland 2023 ASR Mass Notification System – Parkland Alerts

Four alert categoriesverbatim

Parkland Alerts are classified by four separate and distinct categories, some required by the federal law, i.e. the Clery Act. The categories include Emergency Notification, Timely Warning, Safety Notice, and Information Notice.

Four-category taxonomy including Safety and Information Notices.

Parkland 2023 ASR Parkland Alerts categories

Without-delay Emergency Notificationverbatim

Parkland College will, without delay, and taking into account the safety of the community, determine the content of the notification and initiate the notification system, unless issuing a notification will, in the professional judgement of responsible authorities, compromise efforts to assist a victim or to contain, respond to, otherwise mitigate the emergency.

Clery without-delay standard with professional-judgment carve-out.

Parkland 2023 ASR Emergency Notification

At a glance

How this policy works

When it activates: Timely Warning when a Clery-statistic crime presents a serious or continuing threat to students and employees. Emergency Notification for any significant emergency or dangerous situation involving immediate threat to health or safety of students or employees on campus.
Who decides: Department of Public Safety primarily creates and issues Timely Warnings with Vice Presidents’ office input; Director of Public Safety or designee initiates campus-wide Timely Warning for ongoing threats. Director of Public Safety or highest-ranking Public Safety member initiates Emergency Notifications after confirmation; VP Student Services, VP Communication and External Affairs, Sergeant, Compliance Coordinator, officer on duty, or telecommunicator may be involved in audience, content, and sending.
Timeliness standard: Timely Warnings in a manner that is timely; Emergency Notifications without delay unless professional judgment finds compromise of victim assistance or mitigation.
Emergency notification vs. timely warning: ASR defines four Parkland Alerts categories and separately details Timely Warning vs Emergency Notification Clery tracks with auto-enrollment mass notification.
Testing cadence: Not specified in the mass-notification section reviewed; Appendix C referenced for category details.
Scope & limits: Auto-enrollment uses registration/employment contact data; segments of population may be notified if threat is limited to a building; pastoral/professional counselor reports do not require Timely Warning.

ChannelsSmsEmailPhone CallDesktop PopupPa SystemUnknown

Analysis

Reading the policy

Parkland College, an Illinois community college in Champaign, publishes a detailed mass-notification section in its 2023 Annual Security Report. Parkland Alerts auto-enrolls students at registration and employees at hire using provided contact information. Public Safety can send email, text, and/or phone calls and can also deliver messages to Parkland networked computers and Cobravision monitors. Message taxonomy includes four categories: Emergency Notification, Timely Warning, Safety Notice, and Information Notice. Timely Warnings for Clery crimes presenting a serious or continuing threat are primarily created and issued by the Department of Public Safety with input from the Vice Presidents’ office, case by case. Emergency Notifications for significant emergencies with immediate threat are initiated without delay by the Director of Public Safety (or highest-ranking Public Safety member) after confirmation, with message content and audience decisions involving a listed set of senior roles. The ASR explicitly states that following Emergency Notification procedures for an immediate threat does not also require a Timely Warning for the same circumstances, but adequate follow-up information is required.

Takeaways

Key findings

Parkland Alerts auto-enrolls students and employees at registration/hire.

Four-category taxonomy: Emergency Notification, Timely Warning, Safety Notice, Information Notice.

Public Safety leads Timely Warnings; Director of Public Safety initiates Emergency Notifications after confirmation.

Policy, meet practice

When this system actually fired

2 documented times Parkland’s alert system was used, from the case archive.

Provenance

Sources

Official
Parkland College 2023 Annual Security Report PDF
parkland.edu
archived copy