Editor’s note: This article has been updated after a meeting with Iowa State Police Chief Michael Newton in order to clarify the difference between a timely warning and an emergency notification and their reasoning not to send out either after the drive-by shooting. A timely warning is only when an incident takes place on campus-owned property while an emergency notification can be for incidents that are off campus, as mandated by the Clery Act. Both must pertain to ongoing threats to the community. 

The Iowa State Police Department did not send out an emergency notification after a drive-by shooting left a woman hospitalized Monday night. 

In a tweet, the Iowa State Police stated that there was no imminent threat to the community and retweeted the Ames police’s tweets and press release regarding the incident.

Wyatt Blegen, a junior in marketing, criticized the campus police department’s decision to not send out a timely warning through Twitter. 

The Iowa State police responded that they didn’t send out a warning because there was not an ongoing threat to the community and the incident took place off campus. 

There was not an ongoing or continued threat to the campus community. The incident took place off campus and @AmesPolice is the primary agency. Social media can help out when an incident doesn’t meet qualifications for an ISU Alert.

— IowaStateU Police (@ISUPD) December 12, 2017

Blegen responded calling for the department to change their policy.

“Please rethink this policy. On-going threat or not, students should find out immediately when it’s this close to campus,” Blegen tweeted. 

This policy does not come from the police, but is laid out for them by the Clery Act. 

Under the Clery Act, the university is required to send a timely warning to all students, faculty and staff in the event of possible threats to the community specifically pertaining to geography.

The two requirements laid out in the Clery Handbook are:

504 Stanton Ave., where the drive-by shooting took place, is less than a half-mile or an eight-minute walk from campus, according to Google Maps, but since it is located off campus, it would not require a timely warning.

There have been three timely warnings this semester all pertaining to sexual assault. 

Emergency notifications are more broad and do not have geographic requirements. 

Last month, after a homicide in West Ames that remains unsolved, no timely warning or emergency notification was sent out. The Clery Act did not require a notification because of location and the Ames Police were able to rule out an ongoing threat. Iowa State Police Chief Newton said he could not share details as to how they were able to make this determination because it is still an on-going investigation. 

He added that if there was a threat to the community, the police would want to inform the community to make sure safety measures are taken. 

There was no notification sent after the Campustown shooting in February that left three people hospitalized.

“Please know that based on the information at that time, ISU Police was able to quickly determine the threat to the ISU community had been neutralized and the community was no longer at risk,” Aaron Delashmutt, associate director of public safety, said at the time of the February incident.

The department retweeted the press releases from the Ames Police Department and shared them on Facebook at the time. 

These messages, however, do not reach students, faculty and staff who do not have social media or those who don’t follow the organizations’ accounts. 

Newton said students with concerns were typically able to find the information elsewhere, whether through other students on social media or from different news outlets. 

“An immediate threat encompasses an imminent or impending threat,” DeLashmutt said at the time of the Campustown shooting in February. “At the time the shooting happened, it was an imminent threat. However, it was over so quickly, mere minutes, there was no time to issue an alert.” 

DeLashmutt said sending emails after the fact when there is no longer a threat to the community could lead people to disregard their emails. 

By restricting emails to when there is an ongoing threat, DeLashmutt hopes to maintain “immediate attention from our community” and “provide them with some call to action.”

The Iowa State Police are working on bringing new safety measures to the department including a new emergency warning system and a safety app. The department also is looking to hire a Clery compliance specialist.