Keeping Students Safe

Campus Safety App "LiveSafe" Enhances Safety at ECU

East Carolina University is putting a safety device in every student, faculties, and staff’s smartphone. With nearly everyone owning a smartphone today, LiveSafe can provide safety instantly through an app on your smartphone.

LiveSafe provides seamless two-way communication between users and campus safety to directly and anonymously report concerns using text messaging, audio, video, and photos. LiveSafe is intended to making reporting safety concerns easier and less intimidation. The app is available for free on Google Play and the App Store.

When a user messages police in an emergency, dispatchers can live chat with them to provide instructions while police are in route if talking or calling attention to the student is not wanted.

In addition to reporting safety concerns, LiveSafe provides another popular feature, SafeWalk. Students can invite contacts on their phone to virtually walk with them by monitoring their location through a GPS-enabled map. While walking, friends can live chat to remain in constant contact, and a 911 button is available for both users if they feel help is needed immediately. ECU’s SafeRide program can also be contacted through LiveSafe as well.

The app also includes campus maps/building information, emergency guides, ECU Cares information, ECU Transit routes and other helpful information about the Greenville area. LiveSafe can be used by all East Carolina University campuses and anywhere in Greenville.

The search for a mobile safety application on ECU’s campus began after a recommendation was included in the 2013-2014 Campus Security Initiatives Report. Campus Safety and the Student Government Association selected LiveSafe as the vendor and began working with them in the fall of 2015 to personalize the app for ECU. The University has found LiveSafe to be very helpful with campus safety and is continuity working to improve the app’s functions.

The app is just one of the many safety resources already on campuses such as blue lights, security cameras, exterior lighting, and safety patrol.

Several other colleges and universities in North Carolina use LiveSafe, including UNC-Greensboro and UNC-Charlotte. The app was co-founded by Kristina Anderson, a survivor of the 2007 Virginia Tech shooting, as a way to use technology as a tool to prevent further campus tragedies. To download LiveSafe or to find more information, visit www.ecu.edu/LiveSafe.