UCCS students and staff can now text campus police in emergencies. Dispatch will send back a link to share camera access so officers can survey the area if needed.
It’s called Prepared911.
The UCCS campus police chief Diana Cooley said the texting and video features allow dispatch to track a user’s location.
“That is completely on the user to give us consent to do that,” said Cooley. “We’re not going to tap into your phone, we don’t have the capability of just turning on a camera.”
The camera access option follows privacy restrictions that the FBI mandates, said the police communications manager Shantelle Zimmer.
“Prepared911 is up to date in all of that ensuring that nobody’s sensitive information is getting out,” said Zimmer.
Cooley said the livestream video is recorded and can be used as evidence.
Prepared911 can also translate languages in real-time through text.
“[Campus police are] trying to take initiatives to find ways to protect us better so like again, incidents like last year don’t happen again,” said UCCS senior Zach Schrim.