Although travel times in the area may increase during the winter months, Woodruff said weather conditions should not significantly impact ISU PD’s response times because of the campus’s overall compact size.
ISU police prepare for winter break crime and weather challenges
Written by Cole Loiacano on December 5, 2025
NORMAL, Ill. – Illinois State University Police Department has had a much lighter week than usual. ISU Police Chief Aaron Woodruff said this is quite common coming into the winter months, especially once students depart for winter break. This lends itself to a new type of crime, though.
“Normal police sometimes encounter issues where students leave for break, and they leave their PlayStation or Xbox in their apartment and then forget to lock their door or make sure they know if they have a sliding glass door to make sure it’s locked or that the windows are locked,” Woodruff said.
This is commonly found on many college campuses across the United States. According to an article by Science Direct Back to school days: Crime seasonality in a campus-dominated community, criminals make themselves aware of break times to take advantage of the vacancy.
In Bloomington-Normal, the weather has taken a dramatic downturn with a large snowstorm last weekend and continually dropping temperatures. Woodruff said this presents a unique set of concerns.
“Besides the weather exposure concerns that I think anybody is subject to that’s outdoors, I would want to make sure that people are traveling safely,” Woodruff said. “When you’re driving through our campus community, you’re likely to encounter pedestrians out there crossing the street, and to be prepared for that, not reducing your speed to anticipate not just the typical pedestrian traffic, but adding that extra time needed to come to a stop.”
One of the most exciting prospects for students during wintertime is the potential for a university closure. Although ISU PD does not ultimately make the call regarding a closure, Woodruff said they do work closely with Emergency Management to coordinate a weather response.
“It could be based on the cold weather and the exposure outside, or it could be based on driving conditions and the ability for staff to make it to the university. A lot of factors go into it when making those decisions on whether or not to close the university,” Woodruff said.
For more information on cold-weather safety around campus, Woodruff said to download the Safe Redbirds App and follow ISU PD on social media.
“We’ll share some general information, and if we see something else in the community that impacts our campus, then we’ll share that as well,” Woodruff said.
