HARTFORD, Conn. — More than 60 federal, state and local law enforcement met with Connecticut’s higher education leaders Tuesday, to talk campus safety.
This is the third of these such meetings in the last year.
“Our approach in thinking about how we keep our campuses safe in 2024 is much different than it was several years ago,” said Connecticut Dept. of Emergency Services & Public Protection Commissioner Ronnell Higgins. “The idea of safety has changed.”
Higgins — who called for this meeting — said he wants to bring these leaders together now that the fall semester is in full swing and students are back on campus.
He also wanted to meet ahead of both the anniversary of the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks and the November General Election.
“We start thinking about how to make or keep our campuses places where people can come live, work, study and visit, we can't apply the same approach that we applied three years ago, five years ago or 10 years ago,” he explained.
They discussed hate speech and extremism, as well as strategies for keeping college campuses safe.
“Some of the differences that we're talking about now versus previously are really uh based on the results of what occurred on campuses, not just in Connecticut, but in New York and nationwide,” Higgins continued. “How we communicate with administrations, the importance of policing leaders and campus safety leaders having university leadership at the table when plans are made.”
Higgins says they talked about emerging practices, shared experiences from last spring and winter, and discussed different resources available.
“Fortunately, things have really quieted down as compared to last spring,” he said. “We learned a lot and the mood on campuses has really changed. We're not seeing anything in terms of external threats.”
While Higgins said a main focus of the conversations was last spring’s pro-Palestinian campus demonstrations, there’s also been a recent spike in general school threats here in Connecticut.
“We're seeing an alarming trend, roughly about one of these sort of school-related threats a day for the past month,” said Anish Shukla, assistant special agent in charge for FBI New Haven. “So I think it's critically important for the FBI for our federal partners to be here to hear firsthand as much as the conversations are happening routinely in this group setting, What are the most important issues on our campuses?”
Shukla says the FBI and other federal partners are treating every threat seriously and offering resources to campus safety officials and local police departments, like analytical, cyber, technical and even labartory services.
“We're better when we learn from each other, when we share information amongst ourselves and with people from across the country,” added UConn chief of police Gene Labonte. “We can't do this alone and we have to share information amongst ourselves and then bring it back to our individual campuses.”
Higgins says the group's already planning their next campus security meeting, but there’s no date set yet.
Officials also confirmed they’re continually monitoring social media and online activity for threats, and at this time, haven’t found anything to warrant an increase in officers on campuses.
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Emma Wulfhorst is a political reporter for FOX61 News. She can be reached at ewulfhorst@fox61.com. Follow her on Facebook, X and Instagram.
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