UNC Launches Mobile App for Campus Safety

Students and faculty have in the past complained about Alert Carolina and the timeliness of the alerts it sends to students, faculty and staff. The university and the Department of Public Safety have been working all summer to change that. Earlier this summer, they unveiled the “one button” system that automates these alerts, by the touch of one of the five buttons.

But now there’s a new component to campus safety. It’s an app called LiveSafe.

“If you are walking at 2:00 A.M. from South Building to the library and you designated me as your friend, I could monitor your travels and we could communicate en route,” said Derek Kemp, Associate Vice Chancellor for Campus Safety and Risk Management at UNC.

Kemp said one of the features of the app lets your friend or family see where you are with a GPS-based SafeWalk feature. Another feature lets you send a report to UNC public safety officials.

“It could be suspicious activity,” he said. “It could be a safety hazard, and it also provides the ability to provide that information anonymously, it also allows the individual to forward pictures.”

The new app replaces RaveGuardian, an app with fewer features and a lower user rate. Kemp says he thinks more students will opt to use LiveSafe because students are behind the whole thing.

“On something like this, when you’re going to go out and encourage people to use a new system or tool, it’s always helpful if they’re advocates from day one,” he said.

Kemp also said UNC is working with LiveSafe to directly connect the app to Alert Carolina, so users can directly receive all notifications from the program. He says overall, the goal is to make the campus safer by making all resources as streamlined as possible, although the “one button” upgrade earlier this summer has already helped.

“To go from awareness to alert, it used to be about a 15 minute process and now that’s down to about a two or three minute process,” Kemp said. “So it’s all tied into that greater effort, to that continual effort to make this campus safer.”