UK Establishes Twitter Account for Off-campus Safety Notices

LEXINGTON, Ky. (April 6, 2017) – The University of Kentucky is committed to putting students and their safety first.

To that end, UK Police and students have been talking for months about how to provide even more information about safety issues – both on campus and off of it. The result of those conversations and feedback is the creation of a new Twitter account for off-campus safety issues in densely populated student residential areas.

The Twitter account can be found at https://twitter.com/ukyoffcampus or @ukyoffcampus.

“Whether students are on or off campus, we want to do what we can to provide timely information, when possible,” said UK Police Chief Joe Monroe. “This is one more tool we can utilize to help inform students and others.”

These tweets are not the same as UK Alerts and will not replace UK Alerts. However, as UK safety officials become aware of off-campus incidents in high-density student residential areas, notifications will be posted to @ukyoffcampus.

Here’s how the new notifications will work:

• To determine when tweets are sent from @ukyoffcampus, the UK Police Department developed a heat map of high-density, student populated areas off campus.

• When the UK Police Department is notified of information regarding an off-campus safety issue in a densely student populated area, they will tweet about the situation from @ukyoffcampus.

• UK Alerts are designed for use only when an incident disrupts normal campus operations or threatens the immediate health and safety of the campus community, such as a tornado warning, active shooter, armed robbery, etc. 

• UK also issues crime bulletins which are emails sent to all students, faculty and staff to inform them of a significant incident or ongoing situation that could affect their personal safety or that of their property, but that UK Police were not aware of at the time the incident occurred.

• Examples of bulletins could be a significant crime that was reported to another law enforcement agency instead of UK Police, ongoing reports of thefts of specific items like bicycles or mopeds, etc.

• Students are encouraged to set up their Twitter account to receive text or push notifications when @ukyoffcampus tweets. In doing so, the system and process would be similar to UK Alert. Those who set up their notifications in this manner would be notified of the situation as soon as UK Police send the tweet.

Below are step-by-step instructions on how to follow @ukyoffcampus and sign up for notifications:

Signing up for SMS text message notifications

1. Using a desktop computer, log into your Twitter account

2. Make sure your mobile number is associated with your account. Directions at https://support.twitter.com/articles/110250

3. Go to @ukyoffcampus on Twitter https://twitter.com/ukyoffcampus

4. Click “Follow”

5. Beside the “Follow” button, click "More user actions" and choose “Turn on mobile notifications”

6. You should now receive text messages when @ukyoffcampus tweets

Signing up for push notifications

iPhone:

1. In the Twitter app, go to @ukyoffcampus

2. Click “Follow”

3. Tap the notification icon 

4. Click “All Tweets”

5. You should now receive push notifications when @ukyoffcampus tweets

Android:

1. In the Twitter app, go to @ukyoffcampus

2. Click “Follow”

3. Tap the notification icon 

4. Check the box next to “Account notifications”

5. From the pop-up message, choose “All Tweets”

6. You should now receive push notifications when @ukyoffcampus tweets