The University has communicated with local police requesting their cooperation in informing
the University about situations reported to them that may warrant an emergency response.
Students, staff and visitors are encouraged to notify the University Police Department at
660.562.1254 of any emergency or potentially dangerous situation.
University Police has the responsibility of responding to and summoning the necessary
resources to mitigate, investigate, and document any situation that may cause a significant
emergency or dangerous situation. In addition, University Police has a responsibility to
respond to such incidents so that it can assist in the determination of whether the situation
does in fact pose a threat to the community.
University Police in consultation with other appropriate personnel is primarily responsible for
confirming that there is a significant emergency or dangerous situation on campus that could
cause an immediate threat to the health and safety of the members of the campus community.
There are other departments on campus/off that could be in a position to assist confirming
certain types of emergencies, such as a pandemic flu outbreak, gas leak, etc. University
Police will respond and/or summon the appropriate personal to evaluate the report and
determine the severity of the emergency or dangerous situation. University police will make
the final judgement regarding the severity based on the totality of the information they
observe, receive from others, determine with a validated instrument, etc.
The University Police Department has access to the systems to notify the campus community
of immediate threats that have occurred and necessitate evacuation, shelter in place, or other
actions on the part of students, employees, and campus visitors. University Police and/or
local first responders will assist those preparing the emergency notification with determining
what segment or segments of the University community should receive the notification. If the
emergency affects a significant portion of the entire campus, University officials will
distribute the notification to the entire campus community. However, if appropriate to a
specific incident, University Police does have the capability to activate our simplex alarm
system notifications to the campus community members in the immediate area of the
dangerous situation (i.e. a specific building or adjacent buildings.) In this instance, University
officials will continue to monitor the situation and may send subsequent notifications to a
wider group of community members. Once an emergency notification is made, adequate
follow-up information will be provided to the community as needed. The institution typically
provides follow-up information to the community using the same systems that were used to
send out the original alert.
University Police will, without delay, and taking into account the safety of the community,
determine the content of the notification and initiate the notification system upon the
confirmation of a significant emergency or dangerous situation involving an immediate threat
to the health or safety of student, employees and visitors occurring on or reasonably
contiguous to the campus, unless issuing a notification will, in the professional judgment of
first responders, compromise efforts to assist a victim or to contain, respond to, or otherwise
mitigate the emergency. The typical first responders to an incident that causes an immediate
threat to the health and safety of the Northwest community include University Police,
Maryville Public Safety, Nodaway County Sheriff’s Department, Nodaway County
Ambulance Services, and the Missouri State Highway Patrol. Additional information deemed
appropriate by the University Police Department will be disseminated at different points in
times during and after an incident.