In an emergency situation, many students may not have University Police’s phone number memorized or stored in their phones, but it doesn’t matter — just dial #3333.

Because calling 911 will connect on-campus students with Prince George’s County Police rather than University Police, the university abbreviated the police phone number to five characters, #3333, to make it easier for students to remember and dial when emergencies arise. No other university has shortened their emergency number in such a way before, University Police spokesman Paul Dillon said.

In line with these public safety efforts, University Police also created a new alert system last week, in an attempt to assuage student concerns about being left out of the loop when crime strikes the city.

The university teamed up with three cell phone companies — Verizon Wireless, Sprint/Nextel and AT&T — to provide students with the abbreviated number. Another company, T-Mobile, will begin to offer the service sometime this spring.

Dillon said students should be mindful of where they are and what number is appropriate to use for emergencies.

He added dialing #3333 anywhere off or near the campus may not work, but many off-campus areas are included in county police jurisdiction anyway.

“You shouldn’t be dialing #3333 if you are four miles from campus — you should be dialing 911,” he said.

But students concerned about crime on and around the campus should keep their phones on, in case they need to call for help or to stay informed about what’s happening.

For the past few years, university members have been able to receive text messages and e-mails through the “UMDAlert” system for emergencies that pose an immediate threat to students, faculty and staff. But now, university members can sign up at www.alert.umd.edu to receive alerts of significant police-related activities that may not pose an immediate threat to the university community, such as an incident where an arrest has already been made.

As of yesterday morning, about 500 people had already signed up, Dillon said.

If a situation on or around the campus is noteworthy, university police will notify students via text message and e-mail.

Dillon said last semester’s shooting at Rugged Wearhouse and the suspicious package scare at McKeldin Library during the summer sparked a whirlwind of rumors and complaints that the greater university community was kept in the dark about both incidents.

“We wanted to help do rumor control and further inform people,” Dillon said. “It’s also free, and there won’t be that many alerts sent out. We don’t have a chart listing what types of incidents to alert people of, but we’re not going to send out an alert that a couple cars were broken into.” 

Standard text messaging rates apply, so some students like sophomore psychology major Melanie Kohut would rather save their money.

“No, I didn’t sign up. I’d like to, but I probably won’t,” Kohut said. “I don’t have an unlimited texting plan and I don’t want to go over.”

Other students like sophomore criminology and criminal justice major Cecily Greene want to get the most out of their tuition money and be informed of on-campus  police incidents immediately.

“It’s a good idea,” Greene said. “I’m paying my money and should know about most things going on around here.”

Dillon said that many police-related activities are not a threat to individuals on the campus, but people nowadays expect up-to-the-minute information.

“We are in an era where people demand instant information,” Dillon said. “People like to be informed — it’s the way our society has evolved.”

botelho@umdbk.com