Student safety and downtown shootings: MU will send alert if threat is on campus
ABC 17 News is continuing to check in with Mizzou and the City of Columbia after a series of shootings downtown.
As we previously reported, there have been four separate shootings in just three weeks.
A spokesperson for MUPD and campus safety said MU alerts are sent if there is an imminent, ongoing threat to campus safety. The recent shootings happened off-campus.
CPD said its increasing patrols, but MUPD is not planning to patrol the downtown area. MUPD officers are available to help, if necessary.
“If there was a call in the city that required extra assistance and they called us, we would respond immediately. There’s no question at all,” MU spokesperson Christian Basi said.
In an email, a spokesperson for MUPD said “there’s no way to predict if any criminal call will result in an MU alert.”
Under the Clery Act, schools are required to inform people about crimes that are happening on or near campus.
“We’re constantly monitoring what’s happening around our campus 24/7. We have had situations where we’ve had a call in the city that eventually, as it progressed, wound up on our campus so we had to take action,” Basi said.
CPD typically issues a news release after a shooting. Some have expressed concern over the length of time between the shooting and the news release. ABC 17 News asked CPD about this, but did not hear back.
