5 Technologies That Provide Campus Safety On the Go

Here are 5 mobile technologies college should consider investing in to keep students, faculty and staff safe on campus.

April 27, 2015 Jessica Kennedy Leave a Comment

Apps

Some apps offer students the opportunity to connect to GPS technology that alerts police if a person is lost or in danger. With GPS, apps like SafeWalk enable students to virtually accompany a friend that is walking alone somewhere and track his or her journey on a map.

Other apps provide crisis management features during a live, on-campus emergency. These apps enable students, faculty and staff to receive messages about an on campus emergency, the current status of that emergency and what course of action they should follow next. Apps like the Crisis Manager App even send students, faculty and staff updates on evacuation routes and other campus safety plans.

Pictured is the LiveSafe app, which includes the SafeWalk feature.

Megaphones

During an evacuation, faculty and staff can direct crowds of students through a megaphone. Some of today’s megaphones come with long-life rechargeable battery packs, which prevent corrosion to the megaphone’s interior. Some also come with an alarm system, featuring sirens that are activated with a switch of a button, and won’t turn off again until the switch is shut down.

Pictured is Amplivox’s S602M MityMeg Plus, 25 watt megaphone.

Alert beacons

Even though alert beacons are strategically mounted on hallway walls in campus buildings, their mission is to notify people on the go. Most alert beacons will flash lights and blare an alarm to attract the attention of people near it and at a distance. Other beacons come with strobe lights and integrated text for colleges to customize an emergency notification message.

Pictured is an alert beacon by Alertus.

Electromechanical locks

Some campus dorms feature an electromechanical lock system that allows a student to enter without ever using a metal key. These locks replace key-based locks, and can open with a setup student ID card or app. Digital locks can also be controlled through the campus’ Internet connection, and are able to control and update locks remotely if needed.

The student key can also serve a dual purpose as a profile detailed for an individual student, including his or her personal information and picture.

Pictured is an ID card from the University of Iowa

Turnstiles

For campus buildings that need tighter access control, turnstiles can be used to slow down busy areas. Some turnstile setups contain an automatic drop arm that stops the flow of traffic so security officials can double check IDs, allow approved people through and keep unapproved people out. Other turnstile setups enable both uni-directional and bi-directional operations, unauthorized entry alarms, roto gates, and waist-high control operation features to keep campus buildings safe.

Pictured is a drop-down turnstile by Perey Turnstiles.

Campus security is a hot topic when prospective students start looking at which college they should attend.

Often times, students will pass over a campus that is located in a dangerous area, behind on updating its safety policies or even behind on adopting trending security measures.

One security method that is still catching fire in higher education is mobile solutions.

Mobile solutions are ideal for colleges that have high-traffic areas or large student populations that need more control. They are also ideal for students, faculty and staff that have some type of mobile device glued to their hands on a day to day basis.

Ryan Ockuly, National Sales Director for Alertus says that today’s college students are “very mobile,” and rely on their devices to get most of their information.

He says mobile security solutions are a good way to keep students and device-oriented faculty and staff posted in case of an emergency.

“They constantly have it with them, and that provides a good communication outlet for the university to reach a large number of individuals,” Ockuly says.

Colleges have an infinite number of options to choose from when it comes to mobile solutions. Some campuses prefer to improve access control with turnstiles or by installing electromechanical lock systems, or even boost loud crowd control with a traditional megaphone.

Others rely on alert beacons or apps to push out a mass message about an on-campus emergency.

Jamie Underwood, Director of Marketing Communications at Alertus says an institution should have a clear, uniform message when it launches a message via mobile technologies to people on campus.

“A lot of studies and reports have shown that most people, in the event of an emergency, not only want to know what’s going on, but want to be notified about what they can do to secure themselves,” she says. “Once you put the all-clear out, keep people informed as far as how the situation is unfolding so they can take the proper precautions.”

Ockuly says colleges should consider integrating mobile solutions with the security technologies they already have in place.

He says marrying the two together doubles up on keeping emergency messages consistent and quick to send throughout campus.

“Choose a system that allows you to integrate,” he says. “You want those [technologies] integrated so that the same message that is being delivered to their smartphones is also the one that others are getting a text message on…Instead of having to go from system to system, they want to choose many different modes of communication so everyone gets the message where they are and what they have on them. Integration is huge and will bring all this together.”

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Jessica Kennedy

Jessica Kennedy is an editor at TechDecisions Media, targeting the higher education market. Jessica joined the TechDecisions team in 2014 and covers technologies that improve teaching and learning.