WASHINGTON – NowForce, a developer of comprehensive mobile emergency response solutions, is offering college campuses a free enterprise-class personal safety app for their students and faculty.
“Student safety shouldn’t come at a cost,” said NowForce CEO Assaf Shafran. “Campuses should be able to provide every student, faculty member, and administrator with a direct lifeline to the security dispatch center from the device that no one ever ‘leaves home without’ – namely their cell phones.” Instead of asking campuses for even a minimal per-user annual or monthly fee, NowForce is pleased to provide educational institutions with its personal safety technology and apps free of charge, he added.
NowForce’s emergency response solutions are used by law enforcement, security, fire and EMS agencies worldwide; millions of incidents have been reported and dispatched through the company’s software.
Last month, following the kidnapping of three teenage boys, the Jerusalem-headquartered company released its free SOS app for the Israeli public. The Israeli version of the SOS app enables users to dial the police with the swipe of a button, while simultaneously notifying additional emergency services providers and the caller’s emergency contacts of the caller’s ID and location.
The campus version of the personal safety app offers the same SOS functionality, generating an incident and opening a voice call in the campus dispatch or local 9-1-1 center, depending on the security protocols of the institution.
NowForce also offers a complete package for campuses called NowForce CampusSafety™, which includes the free personal safety apps, a “lightweight” web-based computer-aided dispatch (CAD) console, and a mobile responder app for security personnel and other first responders. The solution provides the campus dispatch center with continuous situational awareness while tracking responders’ availability and whereabouts.
“The full solution is essentially a mobile command and control system, both for routine campus security operations as well as for crisis and emergency situations,” Shafran explained. “When an alert or situation report comes in – whether from a student activating an SOS alert, a blue light phone or a regular phone call – our system analyzes and dispatches the closest available personnel, leading to shorter response times.”
