Dickinson Police are investigating fraudulent bomb threat on DSU campus
Jul. 1—DICKINSON — According to the Dickinson Police Department, a bomb threat was received by dispatch at approximately 10:35 a.m. on Friday morning that directed the threat at a building on the Dickinson State University campus.
As a precaution, DSU officials issued an evacuation order for campus buildings and canceled classes for the day. Police say they are receiving indications that other campuses across North Dakota may have received a similar threat.
"We're still getting that information, it's definitely more than one... We're not the only one in North Dakota to have received them. So we're just coordinating with those other agencies in our fusion center to narrow down exactly who's all been receiving these threats," Dickinson Police Lt. Mike Hanel said.
Later in the afternoon, Hanel said a search of campus facilities led his department to the conclusion that there was no active security threat to the premises. An investigation into the original phone call remains ongoing. He also made a point to thank other agencies involved, which included the Stark County Sheriff's Department and Dickinson Fire Department.
The Bismarck Tribune
reported
that Bismarck State College received the same call within two minutes of DSU. Similar threats by phone were leveled against colleges in Devils Lake and Bottineau. This follows a string of other bomb threats aimed at college campuses across the country on the Thursday and Friday, although there is no indication those incidents were connected to what happened in North Dakota. Officers responded to such threats in
Rapid City
and
Aberdeen,
S.D., Washington state, North Carolina and Texas.
The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency is a branch of the federal Department of Homeland Security that helps mitigate these threats by offering resources and educating the public. According to their
website,
these threats are usually made by phone. Anyone who receives such a call should be polite, keep the caller on the line, find another means to notify law enforcement (other than the phone currently being used) and gather as much information as possible.
