UND chief of police discusses protocols for responding to active shooter
Dec. 9—GRAND FORKS — In light of recent mass shootings on college campuses across the nation, UND Police Chief Rodney Clark wants to assure the campus community that his department is committed to the safety of all.
According to Clark, the UND Police Department employs tactics and procedures that are endorsed nationally, and conducts reviews of its procedures annually.
"We review our procedures annually, with the last review coming in May of 2021," Clark said. "As far as police tactics for responding to a shooting are concerned however, they are fairly standard nationwide. That being said, every situation is different. Law enforcement's response depends on factors like the number of shooters involved, and the layout of the building. The basic doctrine in every situation is go to the threat and stop it."
Clark said the UND police department has a strong level of cooperation with the other two major law enforcement agencies in Grand Forks — the Grand Forks Police Department, and Grand Forks County Sheriff's Office.
"The big three police agencies all cooperate here in Grand Forks County," said Clark. "At our department, there's typically only two or three, sometimes four officers on duty at any given time. That's not a large enough number to conduct exercises like building clearance in the event of a shooter, so we rely on our partners in the community to help us out. That's pretty standard across rural America."
Clark said evidence of this cooperation was demonstrated on Oct. 13, when an
active shooter threat
was called into Red River High School.
"Some of our officers, including myself, responded to the active shooter threat at Red River," Clark said. "Although that situation was under the city police department's purview, in law enforcement we have something called 'mutual aid.' If one agency requests assistance from another agency outside of its jurisdiction, the helping agency can go and assist with police work."
Clark said the UND police department works closely with UND's counseling center, to assist members of the campus community who may be in crisis.
"UND, like most universities in the U.S., has a behavioral intervention team, which I am a member of, consisting of law enforcement personnel and staff from the counseling center," said Clark. "If there is a student, staff, or faculty member in our jurisdiction experiencing mental health problems, we routinely respond to those calls. If needed, we can do transports to the local hospital so they can receive medical care."
Clark said another aspect of keeping the campus community safe is monitoring and responding to threats on social media, and other mediums of communication such as email.
"When people bring online threats to our attention, or if we encounter a threat in an investigation, we take them very seriously and always look into their credibility," said Clark.
