It’s a university police officer’s job to know how college students communicate. Officers still can’t be friended on Facebook or followed on Twitter, but this summer the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Police Department started accepting text messages.
“We have a student population where text messaging is very huge,” said Carl Oestmann, the director of patrol operations for UNLPD. “A student can text quicker than I can probably pick up a phone and dial, to be honest with you.”
The number is 41513, and the password is UNLPD. Oestmann said university police are expecting texters to be most useful during football games or other events where loud noise makes it almost impossible to talk on the phone. But the number is always operating, and messages go directly to a police dispatcher just like other emergency calls.
“We were looking at a way for people to contact us without the loud crowd in the background, and then we expanded on that idea and said we would like all students or faculty to use it if it’s appropriate instead of calling,” Oestmann said. “We would still prefer them calling, but if they’re in a situation that they can’t call, and they want to send a text message, go for it.”
Oestmann said UNLPD came up with the idea of accepting text messages when they received a call from a student calling on behalf of a friend. The friend was a female student at UNL trying to get through to police but didn’t want to make a scene by making a phone call.
“It would have been nice if she just would have texted us straight,” Oestmann said.
Deyanira Salgado, a freshman business administration major, has unlimited text messaging and is rather fast at it, but she doesn’t think she has the nerve to text the police if she was in a dangerous situation.
“I wouldn’t be able to if it was happening to me,” Salgado said. “Maybe if I was watching something from a distance.”
She said the service would also be useful if a person wanted to contact police and didn’t want the people around to know what he or she were doing.
The service was first used at a Larry the Cable Guy concert at Memorial Stadium on July 1. Oestmann said police received close to ten texts from audience members. The police classified two of the texts as pranks and responded to the others, which were alcohol related complaints in different sections throughout the stadium.
The police dispatcher got information about where the complaints were taking place from the text messages, zoomed into the area with cameras that can be controlled from University Police headquarters at 17th and R streets and directed officers to the area.
Although no arrests were made thanks to text messages that night, police were able to put the strategy to use and learn how to utilize it. There are some police departments across the nation that can receive text messages, but Oestmann said the service is rare.
“It’s not as common now as it will be in the future,” he said.
ryanboetel@dailynebraskan.com
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