Urgent: 617-495-1212 (Longwood 617-432-1212)  |  Business: 617-495-1215

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Timely Warnings

The HUPD provides timely warnings to the University community when a significant criminal incident occurs on campus or in an area surrounding campus that represents a continuing public safety threat. Decisions to disseminate a warning will be decided on a case-by-case basis in light of all the facts surrounding the crime and the continuing danger to the campus community. The purpose of the warning is to aid in the prevention of similar crimes by alerting the community about the incident and providing information on what actions people can take to diminish their chances of being victimized.

A warning that could jeopardize a criminal investigation will not be distributed. The amount and type of information presented in the warning will vary depending on the circumstances of the crime. An effort will always be made to distribute a warning within twenty-four hours of the crime and to make the warning a preventive tool, not solely a description of the incident. Significant criminal incidents that might elicit a timely warning include, but are not limited to, crimes of violence or patterns of property crimes.

Timely warnings are distributed as a Community Advisory or as a Crime Alert. When crimes pose a threat to the entire University community, a Community Advisory is written and distributed to the entire University community. When crimes pose a threat to a specific population or location, a Crime Alert is written and disseminated to the relevant population of students, faculty, and staff or to the students, faculty, and staff in the specific area or location.

Community advisories are disseminated as emails to all students, faculty, and staff on either the Cambridge or Longwood campus and posted on the Department's website. Crime alerts are sent to University officials with a request to forward to a specific population of students, faculty, and staff. To view current and archived advisories please visit http://www.hupd.harvard.edu/advisories.php.

Emergency Communication

In the event of a significant emergency or dangerous situation involving an immediate threat to the health or safety of students or employees occurring on the campus, the University and HUPD have at their disposal a wide variety of communication tools including:

• MessageMe - University's high speed, community-wide mass notification system
• www.harvard.edu/emergency - a special website activated at the time of major emergencies
• 617-496-NEWS (6397) - an automated notification line available in the event of an emergency
• 617-432-6666 - an automated notification line specific to the Longwood campus
• School and University websites
• Email

MessageMe is the University's primary tool for emergency notifications to the campus community. MessageMe is focused on streamlining community communications allowing crisis support leaders to immediately and simultaneously send messages to the University community via the community members' preferred contact methods: phone, text messaging, email, RSS, Facebook, or Twitter.

Users of MessageMe are requested to update their contact information annually at the start of the academic year by logging onto http://messageme.harvard.edu. Members of the Harvard community are not required to sign up for the MessageMe service. Currently, there are more than 24,000 MessageMe subscribers.

In the event of a life-threatening and/or campus-wide emergency, select members of HUPD and/or Harvard Public Affairs & Communications Office, under the direction of the University's Crisis Management Team, will, without delay and taking into account the safety of the community, determine the content of the notification as well as the appropriate audience for its receipt and will initiate the MessageMe system, unless issuing a notification will, in the professional judgment of responsible authorities, compromise efforts to assist a victim or to contain, respond to or otherwise mitigate the emergency. Subsequent notifications will be sent through MessageMe and the other communication tools listed above as needed.

Emergency Evacuations

Emergency evacuation plans have been created for every building on campus as well as for major outdoor areas of campus such as the Harvard Yard and Business School campus. Building evacuation drills are conducted throughout campus multiple times per year. Each drill is documented including its date, time, location and any pertinent information that will help improve future evacuations. Building evacuation maps are posted prominently within each building and outdoor evacuation routes are publicized to the Harvard community.