Police chief and students discuss lack of ENS alarm after attack on two Jewish students on campus

After two Jewish students were attacked near the Cathedral of Learning on Friday night, Levy Nys believes an ENS alert from the university helped ease students’ fear and confusion about the attack.

“Students have a right to stay informed, no matter what the information is,” said Nys, a second-year student studying law, criminal justice and social sciences.

Although police responded quickly to the attack and arrested the perpetrator, no formal ENS alert was sent to the Pitt community. Pitt Police Chief Holly Lamb said that because the University of Pittsburgh Police Department patrol officer “immediately encountered the incident in progress and took the perpetrator into custody,” there was no need to alert students.

“Because the situation was immediately under control and there was no emerging, immediate or ongoing threat to the campus community, an ENS alert was not required to alert students to take immediate protective action,” Lamb said.

According to Lamb, crime alerts are issued to alert the Pitt community to crimes listed in the Clergy Act that “may pose a sustained risk of repetition.” She said the ENS system and other security alerts used by the university are subject to Procedure AO 07 Awareness of crime on campus: crime reporting, crime warnings and emergency notifications.

Since Nys and many of her friends listen to police radio for public safety updates, she quickly learned of the attack.

“After that, we just waited for Pitt’s response, especially considering how close the incident occurred to where people live and study,” Nys said.

Savannah Skinner, a third-year neuroscience student, was at the Cathedral of Learning at the time of the incident but didn’t learn about the event until later that evening while scrolling through Reddit.

“When I was in the cathedral, I saw no security or police, and no one walking around seemed to know what had happened,” Skinner said. “When I saw the headline that night, I was equally shocked by what had happened and by the fact that something like that had happened practically right next to me and I hadn’t even noticed.”

Sofie Tepperman, a second-year science student studying to become a physician assistant, believes issuing an ENS alert would help students understand the true situation.

“I think something needed to be done to make students aware that there was something dangerous in the area,” Tepperman said. “It didn’t even have to be specific, just explaining that extra caution was needed in the area, like they normally do. Regardless of whether it was hateful or directed at Jewish students, action needed to be taken in some respect. It also made people question the legitimacy of the situation., and that’s not okay because it was very real.”

ENS alerts are only sent when “there is an immediate or ongoing concrete threat to campus safety,” which Lamb said ensures they remain “salient and actionable.” She said while law enforcement did not issue an ENS alert for this particular situation, public safety and university officials security.pitt.edu and the university’s social channels to “let the campus community know that the situation has occurred but is not ongoing.”

Although the university has stated that there is no ongoing threat to the Pitt community, many students believe that the lack of communication only added to the chaos during the event.

“I don’t think sending an ENS alert would have caused any panic at all, especially when it was made clear that the situation was resolved,” Nys said. “I think people panic even more when there is no alert because then it looks like nobody at Pitt knows or is aware of what is going on.”

Skinner said she was “astonished” that Pitt did not issue an ENS alert after “such a violent incident.” She acknowledged that while the perpetrator was caught immediately, she wished police had advised students to stay away from the area to ensure no further threats occurred.

“I understand they don’t want to panic people when the incident is under control, but I think it’s better to be safe than sorry. And the panic that can arise from a false sense of danger is nothing compared to the number of physical injuries that result when they don’t have the situation under control,” Skinner said.

Lamb said the UPPD has supervisors available 24/7, ready to issue ENS and crime alerts when needed. She said she encourages students and staff to follow the UPPD accounts on Instagram, X and Facebook to stay up to date on crime and public safety information.

Tepperman believes Pitt police should send ENS alerts when “there is a potential threat to a student’s safety.”

“Every student has the right to feel safe, but also to be informed when something is dangerous and needs to be made public,” Tepperman said.

Lamb said the FBI also responded to a request for UPPD assistance related to the incident. She said UPPD has consulted with the district attorney’s office, which “has not yet filed any hate crime charges, hence our wording with the message to the community.”

Lamb said that while appropriate measures have been taken to address the incident, the UPPD is committed to the safety of all members of the Pitt community.

“However, we remain conscious of our ongoing obligation to protect not only members of our Jewish community, but also all of our students, staff and faculty from any form of harassment, hatred or violence,” Lamb said.

Nys believes that by using multiple different communication methods, Pitt Police could better respond to future threats.

“I think immediate communication with other police officers and the student body, de-escalation tactics and actual, extensive on-site questioning would help police resolve situations much more peacefully and quickly than they have done so far,” Nys said. “I still don’t understand how they determined that this was not directed at Jewish people, but releasing this information is also critical to the school’s understanding of the crime.”