Posted by A-Call-For-Help, a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood, on Feb 7, 2012 at 11:16 am
> Police are encouraging individuals to keep their doors
> and windows locked. People are also encouraged to walk in
> pairs, use suggested travel routes, know the location of
> the emergency blue-tower phones and carry a cell phone, police said.
Good advice for one and all. Just because you are on a university campus, that doesn't stop crime from seeking you out.
One of the problems on the Stanford campus is where does the 911 call go? Palo Alto, Menlo Park, Los Altos, Stanford Police? The exact path that 911 makes might add time to the appropriate police (meaning the Stanford Police) getting the call for help. Maybe Stanford should look into designing/manufacturing some sort of "personal blue box" for students to carry with them that will send a signal directly to the Stanford Police station.
At any rate, Stanford is not crime free, so keep that in mind when on the Campus.
Maybe Stanford should look into some sort of device that provides GPS and a
Posted by Hmmm, a resident of East Palo Alto, on Feb 7, 2012 at 1:34 pm
Stanford has their own department of public safety, manned by deputies.
The alert that went out in the middle of the night was for the 1st incident, but then there was an updated alert during the day on Sun., but no 2ndary alert. I think that on Sunday, these alerts were somehow conflated into one incident w/an update instead of two & the 2nd alert described teh attacker as Hispanic. I wonder if it might really be the same guy?
Posted by RussianMom, a resident of the Old Palo Alto neighborhood, on Feb 7, 2012 at 10:40 pm
SelfDefenseInstructor,
That's a valid point. I would like it to start at middle & high school groups or parend & child session. The more kids will learn self-defense the better.
Posted by opportunity center?!, a member of the Palo Alto High School community, on Feb 7, 2012 at 10:41 pm
Do you think these attackers are clients at the Opportunity Center - which is located right by Stanford campus? There have been incidents locally with these persons and I wonder if the descriptions match anyone who has been staying there.
Posted by frat boys, a resident of Stanford, on Feb 7, 2012 at 11:26 pm
More likely the perp or perps were local frat boys who had too much to drink at a Saturday night frat party. Which frats were serving booze that night?
Posted by Mark, a resident of the University South neighborhood, on Feb 8, 2012 at 2:14 am
A-Call-For-Help, all 9-1-1 calls on Stanford campus (from blue emergency boxes, landlines and cell phones not close to the Highway catchment areas) are routed to the Palo Alto communications dispatch center located at City Hall. (Mobile phone calls to 9-1-1, when close to a highway, may be routed to the California Highway Patrol.)
Palo Alto's dispatch center dispatches for both Palo Alto and Stanford police. The two departments are actually on the same radio system as they work together (very) frequently.
Posted by A-Call-For-Help, a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood, on Feb 8, 2012 at 9:05 am
> all 9-1-1 calls on Stanford campus
Thanks for the information. However, this relaying of 9-1-1 call info adds delay to the receipt of the call by the Stanford police. Generally the police don't publish the processing time for 9-1-1 calls, but whatever it is, it has to be greater for people on the Stanford campus than in the surrounding communities.
Posted by Mark, a resident of the University South neighborhood, on Feb 8, 2012 at 9:25 am
A-Call-For-Help, actually it works pretty smoothly because Stanford police is completely "plugged in" with Palo Alto, there is no relaying like some other departments. It is 9-1-1 caller --> dispatcher --> Stanford police officer. Stanford officers listens to the same radio frequency as Palo Alto police does, and also receive messages via computer aid dispatch onto their vehicle computer from Palo Alto dispatch.
If you're very interested, Palo Alto and Stanford both run "citizen" police academies so community members can get to know what the departments do.
Posted by A-Call-For-Help, a resident of Another Palo Alto neighborhood, on Feb 8, 2012 at 9:48 am
> If you're very interested, Palo Alto and Stanford both run
> "citizen" police academies so community members can get
> to know what the departments do.
I would rather have them publish this information on their web-site. Police academies are nice, but they require the use of very expensive police assets to tell people things that could just as easily be read, or viewed via a Youtube video.
Everyone's time is valuable. The Palo Alto Police need to learn that, and become more transparent.
It would also be appreciated if the Palo Alto Police were to publish some of these call/response times.
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