eCampus notification system used to warn students of ‘suspiciuos vehicle’

On the afternoon of Feb. 3, students and staff members who had signed up for the emergency notification system received a mass text message from the UCCS Police Department. It reported a "suspicious vehicle" behind the Engineering building and instructed all students and staff to remain in their classrooms until further notice. Seventeen minutes later, another text stated that the situation had been resolved, and activities could resume as normal.

The texts were sent in response to a situation that began earlier that afternoon. At 1:25 p.m., Colorado Springs Police received a report of a black Yukon cutting off traffic on I-25. According to their official police blotter, "The witness indicated that the male driver then pointed what appeared to be a 9MM hand gun at the vehicle in front of him." A second witness called in shortly afterward to report the same vehicle still cutting other cars off in traffic and heading east on Garden of the Gods Road toward the UCCS campus.

Jim Spice, the Chief of Campus Police, says his officers listen in on the Colorado Springs Police radio channels, and they heard the reports of the vehicle headed their way. "So when the officers heard that, they started patrolling the campus looking for this car," he said. "A couple minutes later, the officers saw it parked behind the west side of the Engineering Building."

That's when the emergency text message went out to everyone, instructing them to stay in their classrooms until they could determine if there was a credible threat to the campus community.

The officers looked up the license plate and parking permit in their system and matched it with a student named Robert Bell.

They then pulled Bell's class schedule and found him in the Engineering building, and pulled him out of class.

"We took him back to his car, and he gave voluntary consent to search the car, and he did have a weapon in his car," said Spice. According to the CSPD, the weapon was a .45 caliber semi-automatic handgun, resting on the center floorboard. Bell acknowledged that he had been driving in the area of question, but denied ever flashing his weapon.

Officers were unable to reach the witness who had reported seeing the handgun, so Bell was served and released on a charge of careless driving.

Spice says that Bell has been given an exclusion from campus until he meets with the director of Judicial Affairs.

This incident was the only time in at least the past two years that the e-notification system was used for an emergency situation. Recently, the system was modified to include messages regarding weather-related delays.

Only 2,400 users are currently registered for the service – just 22.6 percent of the approximately 10,600 students, faculty and staff on campus.

The service is free to anyone with an active IT username and password, and campus police encourage everyone to sign up: Just go to e2campus.uccs.edu, enter your credentials, and enter up to two cell phone numbers for text message notifications.