The Baylor Department of Public Safety's BU Campus Guardian App allows students, faculty, and staff to report any emergency.
The app launched in 2015 and there are currently 2,500 people who have downloaded the app. The app allows users to send in tips or notify Baylor Police of a medical emergency.
"It allows our students, faculty and staff to contact us using the app.The wonderful thing about that contact, whether they text us or whether they call us is it shows us on a campus map where they are calling from," Baylor Police Chief Brad Wigtil said.
The app also allows you to list any medical details in your profile that first responders should know.
"Should something arise where maybe the elevator isn't functioning and they need assistance they can utilize the app to contact dispatch. Through that, dispatch can see specifically what the situation is with that individual," Leigh Ann Moffet, Director of Emergency Management for Baylor University, said.
Baylor PD says one specific feature in the app is used quite a bit.
"Our students, that's their world: texting. They may feel comfortable texting us and may not feel comfortable contacting us by a phone call," Wigtil said. "We've gotten a lot of text tips since we implemented this program two years ago."
Wigtil said by using the app, the emergency response time is faster and in a critical situation, seconds count.
"Calling 911 on your cell phone goes to Waco PD and their answering center and they transfer the call to us. So you lose those precious seconds especially a medical emergency, crime in progress," Wigtil said.
"Our officers are more familiar with our campus as well as is our dispatchers so they're able to instantly dispatch the appropriate responders and with the location information turned on they are more efficient too in identifying where the person is," Moffet said.
The app also allows users to set a timer that would alert your guardians or "friends" if you did not get to a specific place by the allotted time that a user sets.
Users can text dispatchers through the app or can call Baylor Police directly. In order to communicate with Baylor PD dispatch through the app, you need to have an @baylor.edu email address.
For more information about the app, click here.
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