With the shootings at Chardon High School in Ohio on Feb. 27 and at Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic in Oakland on March 8, many organizations are questioning their preparedness if such an emergency arose at one of their facilities.The same goes for Point Park University. Are the students, faculty and staff ready in the case of an active shooter on campus? Would everybody know what to do and where to go?The April 2007 shooting at Virginia Tech left 32 people dead and 25 wounded and brought on scrutiny of university emergency preparedness across the nation changing how campuses prepare for and respond to emergency situations.For example, when shooter Seung-Hui Cho barricaded himself in one of the Virginia Tech buildings, he chained the doors shut and opened fire. When officers arrived, it took them six minutes to enter the building because nobody had bolt cutters and officers had to shoot out the lock.Now, according to Jeffrey Besong, Chief of Point Park Police, campus police often carry “entry packs” which include bolt cutters and other pieces of equipment that can be used to quickly gain entry into buildings should such a crisis arise.One of the first things that a campus needs is a plan. “We have a detailed emergency operations plan. I think our plan is excellent,” Besong said in an interview on March 9 in Frontier Hall.The Point Park emergency operations plan has a comprehnsive list of which members of the executive team need to respond, what their exact duties are in specific emergencies, and where they are supposed to report. This plan can be activated in a matter of minutes.Department heads and staff members are also aware of the emergency procedures and plans. Anybody can review the campus emergency procedures by going to the Point Park website and searching “Emergency Procedures.”In addition, Besong said the City of Pittsburgh has plans in place for traffic detours if something were to happen at Point Park that resulted in surrounding Downtown streets being closed and a major media response to the area.”You can have the best plan, but you have to practice it,” Besong said. University of Pittsburgh Police Chief Tim Delaney said on March 9 in a press conference following the Western Psychiatric shooting that since the Virginia Tech shootings, the police department practices to prepare for these types of situations. He credited practice for the organized and efficient response by the University of Pittsburgh police department that stopped the shooter.With six hospitals and three universities located in Oakland alone, Delaney said, “We practice and hope it doesn’t happen. But it happened.”When the shooting at Western Psychiatric occurred, Pittsburgh Police Commander Thomas Stangrecki said in a press conference on March 9 that the University of Pittsburgh Police Department was the first to respond to the scene within two minutes of the first 911 call. Those officers were then backed up by multiple other departments – including Pittsburgh city Police, Port Authority police, a Special Weapons Armed Tactic team and the Federal Bureau of Investigation.A similar situation would occur if something happened at Point Park. Campus police would be the first to respond followed by other surrounding departments.Because of this, Point Park police go through annual training exercises with surrounding police departments. Besong said the next training exercise at Point Park will be taking place shortly after graduation in May.”Our university is ahead of most universities,” Besong said.All of the buildings on campus can be locked down and secured in a matter of seconds. All it takes is the push of a few buttons in the campus dispatch center.In addition, the most visible form of security is the desk attendants in most of the campus buildings. The desk attendants monitor who enters and leaves the buildings and notify campus police instantly if something appears suspicious wrong.The most common method of alerting the Point Park campus of an emergency is the PointALERT emergency notification system, which sends out emergency messages via text and email.Many campuses have siren warning systems or loudspeakers that can be activated throughout the campus if an emergency arises. Since Point Park is a small, urban campus, that would be impractical. However, Besong said there is the ability to make overhead public address announcements in most of the buildings.”There is nothing that can prevent this,” Besong said. “We can’t control the things other people do. But we can take control [of these situations] immediately.”Since the police force was implemented about a year ago, Besong said it has brought more awareness to the university. His goals are to continue to make sure the campus community has faith in security and continue to make the campus as safe as possible.”I think we are ready and prepared,” Besong said.