The University continued to beef up its technology in the name of safety over the summer, switching to a new mobile safety app, as well as implementing more advanced radio communication between Campus Safety officers.
The switch from LeoSafe, which was just introduced last fall, to the new and feature-rich LiveSafe, came on the heels of the LeoSafe developers discontinuing future updates to the app.
“That sort of put the University in a place where we had to re-evaluate if we wanted to continue with an outdated app or did we want to look elsewhere,” Juan Regalado, associate dean of students, said.
The LeoSafe developers broke the news to the university in the middle of the summer, forcing Campus Safety to scramble and find an alternative in time for the fall semester.
LiveSafe came into the picture, promising a robust suite of new features including geo-mapping and a feature that allows students to virtually escort each other to their destination.
Where smartphones might occasionally lead to dropped calls, Campus Safety also made sure to implement an entirely new radio system for its officers, drastically improving communication.
The new and improved signals are able to penetrate buildings, meaning no more lapse in communication between officers, Director of Campus Safety Jeff Clark said.
“Technology isn’t 100 percent, but it’s a lot better than the old days when you were just guessing where people were at,” Clark said.
Clark said his work as campus safety director is still far from finished.
“My vision is to go 24-7 dispatch,” Clark said. “Currently we’re at about 12 to 16 hours a day. We’re looking at a 24-7 operation.”
—Des Delgadillo
