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Shots fired at MIT - report of an active shooter near Bldg. 32 (Stata)

emergency.mit.net

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Re: Shots fired at MIT - report of an active shooter near Bldg. 32 (Stata)

#91

Post by jason_pr »

bphogan wrote: post #30
homosaur wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At my old uni, you could submit a cell number to an emergency alert system and you would get texts if something like this went down. I'm guessing MIT has something similar although not sure if this system is part of it. I'm sure someone will clarify soon.

I wrote a system that did that for students. It was a ton of fun to work on. And then it didn't work because the cell phone towers couldn't handle it. So of course they scrapped my code, went with a third-party system, and had the same problem. Text messages during emergencies? Not a chance. Not when they don't even work for a simple test (hour delays!)

MIT's system has been alerting me with automated phone calls and text messages within minutes of emergency reports. I've been really pleased with the speed of the system.

Re: Shots fired at MIT - report of an active shooter near Bldg. 32 (Stata)

#92

Post by GabrielF00 »

Anechoic wrote: post #66
ghc wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Gun violence is a very uncommon thing in Boston or Cambridge...it's big news here every time it happens. Now outside the city, in the areas where poor people live, it's a different story...but MIT and Harvard are located in some of the wealthiest, safest areas of Cambridge.

Just for the record, Roxbury and Dorchester are part of Boston proper, and gun violence is those neighborhoods are unfortunately too common: http://www.universalhub.com/crime/dorchester.html http://www.universalhub.com/crime/roxbury.html (I have family in Roxbury, Dorchester and Mattapan) Generally speaking, the areas around MIT and Harvard are relatively safe, although muggings and petty theft aren't unheard of. Thi…

There are a lot of MIT/Harvard folks who seem to have to have minimal knowledge of anything more than a couple of miles away from campus.

Re: Shots fired at MIT - report of an active shooter near Bldg. 32 (Stata)

#93

Post by Symmetry »

homosaur wrote: post #20
hiddenfeatures wrote: post #4

I find it very interesting, that there are such websites. I wonder whether it works, but I guess that if only one life is saved by a notice on a website, that is enough

At my old uni, you could submit a cell number to an emergency alert system and you would get texts if something like this went down. I'm guessing MIT has something similar although not sure if this system is part of it. I'm sure someone will clarify soon.

And in fact my girlfriend, who graduated more recently than I did, got a text message tonight about the situation.

Re: Shots fired at MIT - report of an active shooter near Bldg. 32 (Stata)

#94

Post by dopamean »

uvdiv wrote: post #79

An MIT police officer was killed. A university police officer has died after being shot on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology campus in Cambridge late Thursday, according to state police. http://www.cnn.com/2013/04/18/us/cambridge-gunshots/index.ht...

I would like to add that the suspect made off with the officer's gun as well. That is according to what I heard on the police scanner.

Re: Shots fired at MIT - report of an active shooter near Bldg. 32 (Stata)

#97

Post by jliptzin »

rubyrescue wrote: post #51
homosaur wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Some crime happens on a college campus probably every day. Most likely hundreds of violent crimes a year. But the reason this is on HN is MIT, nothing more.

We recently built an app that tracks this based on official US government data - per the Cleary act every US college that receives Federal funds must declare their on-campus crime rate. https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/campus-sentinel/id513108130?... - you can compare MIT to other campuses.

Why is it 22.6MB?
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