Northern Illinois University
Department of Police and Public Safety

The university's Safety Notification System may be used to distribute important information via text message, recorded phone message and/or email. The system will use the mobile phone number that has been provided by students and employees through MyNIU. This is just one component of the university's safety notification plan. See Types of Bulletins for information on safety notifications and the channels of communication that can be utilized to provide safety warnings to the campus community.

There is no charge to sign up for this service. Your cell phone carrier might charge you to receive text messages, so please check your plan. If your plan includes unlimited text messages, you will not be charged.

NIU students and employees are automatically subscribed to the service via their contact information in MyNIU. See our registration page for information on how to update your mobile phone number in MyNIU.

The primary purpose of this service is to notify the immediate campus community as quickly as possible in the event of an emergency situation so it is only available to NIU students, their families and NIU employees. The following methods are available to the general public:

• NIU Police and Public Safety Facebook page
• NIU Police and Public Safety Twitter account (@niupolice)
• Emergency information webpage

NIU students have the ability to register up to two emergency contacts to receive NIU Alerts. These contacts can be parents, spouses, family members or anyone else. The primary purpose of this service is to notify the people on campus as quickly as possible when an emergency occurs. Notifications will be sent to the parents, spouses and others after a message has been sent to all students and employees.

Contact information for the system is updated daily, so once you graduate or leave, you will be removed from the system. Parents, when your child graduates from NIU, your numbers will be deleted from their account. If you are listed on the account of another child who is still enrolled, you will continue to be registered.

All text messages from the NIU Safety Notification System will come from 23-7233 (BE SAFE). You may want to add that code to your phone's contacts under "NIU Safety Notification" so you recognize the name when the message comes through. Emails will come from niupd@niu.edu and will be sent to your niu.edu email address.

The message will give you a very brief description of the situation and tell you if you need to take action. Text messages have a 140 character limit, so the message will be brief. See Safety Notifications for detailed information. The system will ask you to confirm receipt of the message. This helps the university know that the message was received.

You can update your cell phone number by logging in to MyNIU, and updating your phone number under 'personal information'.

NIU Safe is an app that provides campus with safety resources and adds a layer of security to help students and employees. The app includes many features, such as emergency alerts, Virtual Walkhome and Mobile BlueLight. It helps users report crimes, respond to emergency situations, track weather conditions, and access resources and services.

You can get NIU Safe from the Apple App Store or Google Play.

The message will briefly describe the situation and tell you if you need to take action. See Current NIU Safety Notifications for more detailed information.

This feature lets the NIU police know where you're traveling. When you use this feature, the Department of Police and Public Safety will be able to monitor your progress to your destination. Virtual Walkhome will use your location services and, if necessary, will call 911.

In an emergency situation, you can use the Mobile BlueLight feature to call the Department of Police and Public Safety and send them your location.

Friend Walk allows you to send your location to a friend so they can watch as you walk to your destination. If necessary, they can trigger a call to emergency services.

No. These features are available for the DeKalb main campus and the immediate surrounding area, and will not work outside these boundaries.