As of Wednesday, March 1, all landline and non-landline calls made by NJIT students, faculty, staff, and affiliates to the emergency number 9-1-1 while on NJIT campus will be answered by NJIT Public Safety dispatchers. This new protocol follows a series of updates and changes adopted by the NJIT Public Safety Department, including new uniforms for officers, accreditation as an official police department, and a newly specialized traffic safety unit.

All NJIT students, faculty, staff, and affiliates will be required to inform dispatchers that their location is on the NJIT campus when asked, “Where is your emergency?” If the call is not initially received by the NJIT Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP), then it will be re-routed to NJIT Public Safety. Callers will be asked for their exact location and nature of emergency while asked to stay .

Any 9-1-1 calls made from a campus landline will be routed directly to the NJIT PSAP. For cellphones, an Automated Number Information (ANI) and Automated Location Information (ALI) systems allow for the determination of cell phone location for emergencies via GPS and 9-1-1 mapping equipment.

A second year biology major and campus resident, Mustafa Maner, commends the addition of a PSAP system to NJIT’s campus, “I think, in case of emergency, this will really help with response times on campus. If we already have a [public safety] department here, why not make full use of it by being sure we can route emergency calls to the department itself?”

Lt. Kevin Kesselman oversaw the project of implementing a PSAP at NJIT. The process involved selecting and training highly qualified dispatchers with the full approval and support of the university’s upper administration. Dispatchers were required to complete 40 hours of 9-1-1 Telecommunication Training and 40 hours of Emergency Medical Dispatch (EMD) Training. In addition, both dispatchers and administrators were trained on the PSAP system over the course of six days.

As opposed to the current system, the newer and more streamlined system will be able to allow for more control and responsibility on the NJIT Public Safety department’s end, as well as quicker response times for callers. After Wednesday and beyond, be sure to call 9-1-1 directly for any emergencies instead of contacting Public Safety first. Most importantly, if your emergency is on campus be sure to inform the dispatcher of your location so that you may be routed to NJIT Public Safety, and be assisted by the closest emergency response team available at that time.