safety-campus-app

Safety app reflects culture change at 3 different institutions


Georgetown University, UDC, and NOVA customize tech to improve communication and campus safety.

safety-campus-app

Diverse institutions of higher education in the D.C region are integrating a smartphone app into their safety strategies to engage students to think and act differently, for their own safety, and the safety of others.

At the close of a school year where campus crimes have been in the spotlight, a movement is emerging in the D.C. region to change the mindset of college students and develop a culture where bystander action is the norm, not the exception. As campus security transitions from blue light phones to the smartphone era, more than 750,000 college students in 24 states can now reach security officials directly through an app. More than 100,000 of them are in the metropolitan DC region.

Officials at Georgetown University, the University of the District of Columbia and Northern Virginia Community College chose the LiveSafe smartphone app as one part of the safety solution–a technology that leverages student preferences for texting and anonymity to open new channels for two-way communication with safety officials.

These campuses have also customized LiveSafe’s sexual assault resource page within the app to share where to report a crime and to direct victims to confidential support services on and off campus.

(Next page: How each institution is integrating the app into their campus safety strategy)

Founded by a survivor of the 2007 Virginia Tech massacre, LiveSafe says it enables real-time communication between students and police through texts, photos and videos. The company says that college students who are reluctant to call 911 are more comfortable sending anonymous texts. Students also use the app’s virtual buddy system, SafeWalk, to watch on a map as a friend walks alone, and to summon help in an emergency.

Georgetown University 

Seeking to impact student culture to create a safer campus, Georgetown University Police took note of its own culture and traditions. Underutilized “blue light” phones stood sentinel across campus, as students streamed by while texting on their smartphones.

Georgetown Police Chief Jay Gruber recognized an opportunity to evolve his means of communicating with students by adopting a tool compatible with student culture.

During the first month of implementation, a flasher was quickly arrested when a female student, who could not call 911 without alerting the man, used LiveSafe to discreetly text police.

Georgetown customized the app in January 2015 to connect its security escort vehicles with SafeRide, the app’s GPS-powered feature.

Chief Gruber on this “paradigm shift” in campus safety (0:55):

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Georgetown’s PSA on LiveSafe, which includes demonstrations of sending a tip and using SafeWalk (1:32):

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Northern Virginia Community College

Chief of Police Daniel A. Dusseau, (named Chief of the Year by Campus Safety Magazine in 2014), called the technology “groundbreaking” when he launched LiveSafe in April of that year. In addition to reporting crimes and concerns, he encouraged students to use the app to make safety suggestions, anonymously if they preferred.

After a student was sexually assaulted in October 2014 while walking alone at night, campus police encouraged more students to use LiveSafe. Tips came in immediately, including assaults, vehicle accidents, suspicious activity and disorderly conduct.

Last fall, a tip submitted through LiveSafe saved the life of a student who was in danger of overdosing, noted the College. Subsequent tips have included harassment, disturbances, vandalism, thefts and drug abuse.

NOVA’s video that demonstrates how to use the app (1:11):

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