The call reached the University Police Department at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, April 25. An anonymous voice said, "There are four bombs in four buildings, guess which one could go off first."
UPD Officers searched the campus but did not evacuate any buildings. The report said officers found no devices.
Bomb threats are fairly common at SF State, but rarely are they taken seriously, according to the UPD.
Lt. Dan Davis of the UPD, said false bomb threats are usually called into campus during mid-term or final exams or after a major incident such as a Unabomber incident or the Oklahoma City bombing. When calls do not give specific details about where a possible bomb could be, the UPD does not evacuate the campus.
"We take every call as a real call, but when the caller isn't specific about which building the device could be in or we are not able to find a device, then we can't evacuate the whole campus. Where would we put all those people?" Sgt. Amalia Borja said.
Davis said they were not able to trace the source of the most recent false bomb threat since the call came from off campus. However, UPD does have the technology to trace all calls dialed from within campus, Davis said.
In a circumstance where the UPD does find a device suspected as a bomb, Borja said officers will evacuate the area and call for back-up from the San Francisco Police Department. Borja said the UPD uses a portable X-ray machine to determine if an object is explosive. When asked about what other devices the UPD uses in bomb threat situations, Borja refused to go into further detail to protect this information from potential bombers.
The SFPD Explosive Ordinance Disposal Unit aids the UPD with bomb threats. If the UPD needs bomb sniffing dogs, they call San Francisco Airport Police.
The EOD unit gives technical advice, assists in evacuations and detonates bombs. However, the unit does not make the decision to evacuate an area.
"It's up to the UPD to take totality of fact and decide whether it's reasonable to evacuate the place," said Sgt. Mark Potter, who heads the EOD.
When the EOD does visit the campus, Potter said it usually takes 20 minutes to reach the school.
Potter said the EOD sends technical advisors to campus if someone receives a suspicious package. Even though the packages Potter has come across turned out to be regular mail, Potter said he doesn't mind investigating those situations.
"We'd rather be called about a suspicious package than have someone have suspicions about a package but doesn't bother to call and ends up opening a real bomb," Potter said.
Potter also said bomb calls increase during periods when stress is high on campus.
A few students and campus employees voiced their opinions about how they would feel if the university received a bomb threat. "I wouldn't care, I wouldn't want to leave campus. What are the odds it's a false alarm?" Carl Jay, a senior history major said.
"Well regardless, I think they should get everyone off campus. What if there really is a bomb and someone gets hurt? The school will be liable," said Nelson Lee, who works in the development office.
"It's real common during finals. People do it to get out of a test. I would take a bomb threat seriously enough to leave campus though. People tend to think 'we're Americans, nothing bad is going to happen to us,'" said Emily Uribe, a junior math major.