Public Safety implements MyForce app

COLORADO SPRINGS, CO — The Department of Public Safety has recently imple­mented the MyForce app, which can best be described as a sophisticated panic but­ton for smartphones.

UCCS is only the second university to sign up with MyForce (the first being University of Denver) but is the first to actively test My­Force.

Jim Spice, chief of police and executive director at the Department of Public Safety, learned about the app at the Colorado Association of In­stitutional Law Enforcement Directors meeting, where police chiefs from various universities throughout Col­orado meet in Denver every quarter. MyForce was invited to the last meeting, where they introduced their app.

“It takes anywhere from twenty seconds to a minute for dispatch to get the alert,” estimated Spice, who has worked on campus at UCCS for 13 years. He added that the campus is “very safe.”

UCCS already has a text messaging system that in­forms students of security threats, but Spice is always open to new safety options and technologies. “It’s al­ways better to be prepared. Safety is not just one thing to keep you safe,” he said.

The app’s main screen looks like a button, which can be activated by tapping a phone’s screen and only dis­armed by using a PIN. The Department of Public Safety receives a notification if the app is activated on campus, while local police stations respond to any off-campus notices.

When the MyForce app is activated, it registers to UCCS dispatch with a loud series of beeps and pulls up a screen on a dispatch comput­er divided into two sections: personal information upload­ed by the user and a map that locates the user with GPS.

A user’s safety issues, health problems, a physical description, allergies, emer­gency contact information and an optional photo are available to dispatch once the app is activated.

Following its activation, MyForce creates an audio recording of the incident be­ing reported and sends it to dispatch, which then calls the user to confirm if an emer­gency is taking place. At this point, the user can only deny an emergency by confirming a safety word, which is set up once the app is downloaded.

The map appears to dis­patch as an image similar to Google Maps, and though mostly accurate, MyForce still has to correct a few bugs. During a test of the MyForce app inside the Department of Public Safety Building, GPS showed that the user was across the street instead of inside the building.

Until the app is disarmed, GPS continues to update the user’s location every fifteen seconds. “Some buildings get better signals than oth­ers,” said Spice, who also noted that the Department of Public Safety tended to have weaker signal reception than other buildings on campus.

The MyForce app is free for UCCS students to use on campus, but individual users must pay for a subscription. The app is available for pur­chase at various online app stores, such as the iTunes App Store.

Find out more here.

Related Stories

• No Related Post