What’s up with: NIU safety notifications?

Northern Illinois University’s safety notifications have decreased exponentially. Weekly notifications of “shots fired” and “stabbings” have gone down to only five safety alerts for the entire 2023-2024 school year. Students are wondering if crime has indeed gone down or if they are being limited from knowing the number of alerts happening in DeKalb. Darren Mitchell, NIU’s chief of police, explained it’s a mix of both. The NIU Safety Notifications are a required part of the Clery Act, a federal law that requires college and university campuses to report and catalog campus crime data and issue timely warnings and emergency notifications when a crime is committed.