Around 10 a.m. on Wednesday, Sept. 7 a rescue call from a campus landline phone was redirected to the Milwaukee emergency dispatch as opposed to the dispatch location on the UW-Whitewater campus. The call brought attention to a temporary campus-wide issue and the importance of always specifying someone’s exact location whenever making an emergency call.

“The concern would be a delay in emergency response caused by the need to reroute the calls from one dispatch center to our local center,” said UW-Whitewater Police Chief Matthew Kiederlen. “Always be prepared to provide a location description of where your emergency is to the dispatch center you contact. Remember, when using cell phones this is always the case because your call can end up in one of three centers when on our campus.”

In case of another emergency, callers should use their cell phone if possible because it is the best way to get in touch with the police team on campus or in the community.

While the police worked on correcting the issue, a formal announcement from Lieutenant Jason Burt and the UW-W Police Department hit the inbox of students and staff on campus. Similar to what Chief Kiederlen shared, the message stated the campus was “experiencing issues with 911 calls being rerouted” and that it was “only affecting landlines and not cell phone calls.”

The problem was officially resolved the following day September 8, around noon. Once again, an email was sent from the Police Department to all members of the Warhawk community, reassuring the safety of calling emergency services on any landline device on campus.

“If you have any questions, comments, concerns or issues, always feel free to reach out. Even if it’s an issue we can’t directly address, we will put you in contact with those who can,” Kiederlen said.

Whitewater community members are encouraged to contact the campus police with any questions on safety, particularly due to rising concerns about the robbery by three males in a red pick-up truck that occurred on campus on Sunday, Sept. 11 between 1 a.m. – 1:30 a.m.

University police can be reached at 262-472-4660 or [email protected].