In recent weekends on University Hill, there have been three concerning incidents: a robbery near a sorority house and two reports of a gun being fired, thankfully without any injuries. After each of these incidents, students have either called CU Police or posted on social media with the same question: Why wasn’t I immediately notified of these incidents?
Chief of Police Ken Koch
So let me explain why. The CU Boulder Police Department has law enforcement jurisdiction for all campus property. And while our officers patrol and have enforcement authority on University Hill and other areas in the city of Boulder, we are not in charge of the city’s major cases. The Boulder Police Department (BPD) has investigative jurisdiction for The Hill and other off-campus areas, and it’s not appropriate for another police agency (such as CUPD) to comment on another department’s case.
When a major crime occurs on campus and there’s a serious or ongoing threat, we’ll send out a message informing you of this. That’s required by a federal law called the Clery Act, and keeping our community informed is the right thing to do in these situations. You can read more about our messaging thresholds here from an August CU Boulder Today article. But that only pertains to university campuses and not city and county jurisdictions.
If the Boulder Police Department sends out a press release or other message about a major crime near our campus, we will share that message on social media, CU Boulder Today and our website. For example, as soon as BPD sent a press release on the Oct. 1 robbery, we passed along that message on the CUPD social media channels and through CU Boulder Today. We will continue with this practice.
In the meantime, please also check out these resources and tips for staying safe wherever you are. The best way to be informed about crime trends and crime prevention tips is by following CUPD and Boulder Police on our social media channels. CUPD is active on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram; just search for CUBoulderPolice. And Boulder Police can be found here on Twitter.
Ken Koch,
Chief of Police
