Editor’s Note: This article contains reference to gun violence. 

NC State Police Chief Dan House shared several updates to campus safety and community involvement during the latest installment of Chats with the Chief, held on Feb. 23.

House detailed protocol for responding to an active shooter on campus, discussed community outreach programs and spoke about the challenges of coordinating police presence for the Stadium Series and Frozen Finley games.

Active Threat Response training

NC State Police offers monthly Active Threat Response trainings and video training on Reporter, which requires a login with Unity ID. House gave an overview of what to do if an active shooter arrives on campus:

• Run: If there’s an accessible escape path, attempt to evacuate the premises.

• Hide: If evacuation is not possible, find a place to hide where the active shooter is less likely to find you.

• Fight: As a last resort, and only when your life is in imminent danger, attempt to disrupt and/or incapacitate the active shooter.

House said when law enforcement arrives at the scene, they’re looking to identify the active shooter and students should ensure they don’t give officers reason to believe they are a threat. Instead, students are instructed to avoid quick movements and to keep their hands visible. 

“First of all, remain calm and follow officers’ instructions,” House said. “They tell you to get on the ground, get on the ground. They tell you to put your hands up, put your hands up. They tell you to lock yourself in a room, lock yourself in the room. Whatever they tell you to do.”

NC State Police Programs

House highlighted several NC State Police programs for students, including the WolfGuard ID program and Safety Escort program.

Students can use the WolfGuard ID program to recover their valuable items, such as laptops, in the instance they are lost or stolen.

“All those things that have a serial number,” House said. “You can come in, we can sign you up on the form and we put it into a system. If it gets recovered somewhere on campus — whether through lost and found or we find it during a search warrant. … We can get those things back to you.”

Additionally, students can request a walking safety escort through the NC State Police non-emergency number, 919-515-3000. That being said, students are no longer able to request a ride from NC State Police.

“If you’re in Talley [and] you want to go to your residence hall, [and] it’s 2 o’clock in the morning, and you don’t feel safe — you call us, we will walk with you to your residence hall,” House said. 

Stadium Series and Frozen Finley police presence

House said NC State Police work at approximately 2,000 special events per year, but the Stadium Series and Frozen Finley games were particularly challenging to coordinate. 

At a typical football game, there are about 14 points of sale for alcohol. For the Stadium Series game, there were 44 points of sale for alcohol. However, police only kicked out six people at the Stadium Series — at a football game, 30 to 40 people are typically ejected from Carter-Finley Stadium.

House said NC State police were not prepared for the Frozen Finley game.

“They were expecting about 10,000 [attendees],” House said. “[24,000] showed up … and it really put us in a pinch because we had about a half to a third of what we really needed for that game. But we learned a lot.”

Currently, there are no Chats with the Chief scheduled for the remainder of the semester. Updates are available via @ncstatesg on Instagram.