Crime Reporting

Considerable effort is made to advise members of the University of Maine community of campus crime and crime-related problems. These efforts include the following:

1. Campus Eyes:  The University of Maine Police need YOUR help in stopping crime and reporting suspicious activity on campus.  If you have information about a crime or other improper activity and would like to report it anonymously, please use this web-based program at http://www.umaine.edu/publicsafety/campuseyes . However, if this activity is happening now, please call 581-9225 to report it anonymously.  Tell the dispatcher you are making a Campus Eyes anonymous report. When this service is used, you will not be identified, by the recipient, who is a UMaine Public Safety employee.
2. Daily Crime Log: The Department of Public Safety maintains a Daily Crime Log of reported crimes. This report includes nature of the crime, date and time, and general location, along with the status of the complaint. Entries or updates are made within two business days. This log is available at Public Safety upon request.
3. Student Newspaper: The student newspaper, The Maine Campus, a twice- weekly publication, publishes a summary of criminal incidents that occurred during the preceding week. The summary is prepared by the student reporter assigned to the “Police Blotter” by the newspaper editor. The Department Investigator assists this reporter with information gathering. Throughout the year the Investigator and Crime Prevention Officer are routinely interviewed on problems and crimes. Arrangements have been made with the paper's editor to print Public Safety alert information that requires immediate notice to our community. Crime Statistics are frequently published by The Maine Campus.
4. Special Alerts and Timely Emergency Notifications: If we have criminal or hazardous activity that requires timely notice in order that our community be well informed of dangerous or potentially dangerous situations; The University of Maine Public Safety officials and others have developed a comprehensive, multi-layered communication system for use in the event of a campus emergency. 

   A web-based service, called UMaine.txt,  will deliver text messages to cell phones and email addresses is the centerpiece of the new system. This system will assure the timely delivery of accurate information during an emergency. This does not include Safety Alerts. The messaging system is hosted by e2campus.com, a national company with higher education clients throughout the U.S.

   Once students, faculty, and staff members register online, they will receive emergency notifications in the form of text messages and/or email messages.  The system allows for delivery to RSS readers, PDA’s, text pagers and home pages on Google, AOL or My Yahoo.

   Easy to follow registration instructions are available at http://www.umaine.edu/umainetxt   You can register to receive information about emergencies, about class cancellations in the case of inclement weather, or both. In addition, procedures are in place to allow for quick updating of UMaine’s home page (http://www.umaine.edu), in the case of an emergency situation. 

   A recorded message at (207) 581-INFO will also provide up-to-date information. Another portion of the comprehensive communication system is a siren located at the top of UMaine’s Class of 1944 Hall, near the center of campus. If an emergency event occurs, UMaine Police officials will sound that alarm, which will serve as a signal to members of the UMaine community to seek further information, which may include advice about what people should do to assure their safety and well-being. 

   These procedures are outlined on a sticker placed on the inside door of every residence hall room and many other outside doors around the UMaine campus.  In addition, the Dean of Students has sent an email message to all students about this program.  Each faculty and staff member has received information about the program in the campus mail.

5. Uniform Crime Report: The Department of Public Safety at the University of Maine is one of a small percentage of institutions that have for more than a decade voluntarily submitted data to the State and National Uniform Crime Reporting System. The Department of Public Safety has been firmly committed to honest and timely reporting of all crime statistics and will continue with that commitment under the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act of 1998 as amended.
6. World Wide Web page: The Department of Public Safety maintains a home page on the World Wide Web (http://police.umaine.edu). Material on this page includes a list of all members of the Department along with the ability to send electronic mail directly to any person, and a direct link to the Clery Report for that reporting year. Every student and employee at the University of Maine is given access to the computer system at no cost to them. Through the World Wide Web the Department is able to quickly post important messages to the community when required. Using the World Wide Web, a copy of any notification can be delivered to any person who has access to the Internet.