NIC faculty met to hear a presentation on Rapid Responder, a program to be used in case of a campus emergency.
Vice President for Student Services, Graydon Stanley, said administrators were prompted by the event earlier this month in which a student made a Columbine-like threat, putting the college on high alert.
“It heightened everyone’s attention to this issue, we had Kootenai county on our campus, we had Coeur d’Alene [police]on our campus, we set up a command center; so all of a sudden were seeing the benefits of a program like this right in front of us,” Stanley said.
Rapid Responder addresses the issue of school security by providing first responders with a campus layout, floor plans of the buildings and photos both inside and out.
Officers can then access emergency protocol such as evacuation routes and set up perimeters according to the situation, giving necessary distances in case of chemical spills or possible bomb threats.
Spearheading the effort to update campus security is Stanley, and NIC Vice President Ron Dorn.
The last time NIC looked into the program the price was $62,000, though Stanley said he suspects the price has dropped since, and that grants are likely to be available from either the state or homeland security.
“Price is always an issue, [when] trying to balance what’s right for the college, though I’m convinced we’ll invest, you can’t spend too much money to make sure you have a safe place on campus,” Stanley said.
Stanley said he has also asked staff to research comparable programs and will be looking into reference checks from universities with similar size campuses.
“We want to be a smart shopper, though Rapid Responder is the favorite horse in the race,” Stanley said.
“The programs use is in turning chaos into something you can manage and work with,” said Coeur d’Alene City Police Officer Jon Spranget. “It’s better to plan, than to make it up as you go.”
Stanley added that a program like this pays for itself with the first incident.
“It’s not a matter of if, it’s a matter of when,” said Spranget.
Stanley said he felt NIC “absolutely” could have benefited from having Rapid Responder available during the threat scare that took place on campus last month.
“During the gun incident, the administration had to manually reproduce photos and floor layouts,” Stanley said.
All of which, Stanley said, would have been available at the click of a button if Rapid Responder had been in place.
“I’m a person that believes in being pro active and being on the front end I don’t want to have regrets about what I didn’t do, I want to have results from what we did do,” Stanley said.
Stanley said the best-case scenario for implementation of the program will be January, worst case July.
In the mean time, Stanley said NIC will be holding an exercise in emergency protocol late October or early November, involving local agencies “to make sure everyone is on the same page.”
“We want this to be a safe place, our commitment to students is we need this to be a safe place where you can pursue your studies,” Stanley said.
