Reports of a gunman in an ASU parking structure Friday made waves throughout the University and surrounding community.
While the situation initially seemed frightening, it was resolved within a matter of hours. Police quarantined the parking structure on Apache Boulevard after receiving an anonymous call that a person was pointing a gun at the ASU Police Department from the structure. Streets leading to the area were also blocked off for approximately an hour and an “all clear” was declared less than an hour and a half after the incident began.
In a twist of irony, the situation happened only a few days after Arizona passed a law allowing firearms in vehicles on public property.
But while the situation was thankfully well contained, the spread of information — and misinformation — had the opposite effect.
After an initial notification from the ASU Alert System telling students to stay away from the area, watching the spread of information via Twitter and Facebook was stunning.
Hundreds of posts “retweeting” the initial messages and updating statuses were sent out within seconds of each other via the social networking platforms.
Many received text messages from ASU Alert, the University text-message notification system that students, faculty and staff can opt into by signing up through the University.
According to an ASU press release, “[ASU Alert] is designed to be used only in the case of a major emergency event either on one of the ASU campuses or in the immediate vicinity.”
The idea behind the system is an excellent one, and as we saw on Friday, the message spread quickly. But the first notification, which was received around 45 minutes after the incident began, was very cryptic: “ASU Police are working on an incident in the Apache Parking Structure on the Tempe campus. Please stay away until further notice.”
Subsequent messages did little to clarify the situation.
While we can appreciate a need to limit what information is shared immediately, the original message could have been interpreted in a number of frightening ways.
The second update came more than 20 minutes later and was primarily to tell people to avoid calling the police for reasons other than an emergency.
The minimal information provided led to a lot of speculation — not to mention a staggering number of people asking other social networking users if they knew anything more than what ASU sent out.
If the alert had provided more information — within reason, of course — it may have done more to assuage the frenzy for information and the circulation of rumors that made their way onto people’s updates.
In theory, the System is good, and in practice, it worked. But it could certainly use refinement to work ideally. Then again, ideally, we wouldn’t have a need for it at all.
