Tulsa Company Helps Improve NSU Campus Safety

If you worry about your safety, there's an app for that.

In October, News On 6 reported that a Tulsa based company testing a new security smartphone app at the NSU campus in Tahlequah. NSU officially launched that app Tuesday.

10/14/2012 Related Story: Tulsa Company Tests Safety App On NSU Campus

The application alerts Northeastern State University police when students, faculty and staff feel threatened.

"You never know in a college environment what's really going to happen," said NSU Junior Bobbi Collins.

Bobbi Collins was one of the few who got to test out this app before the actual release.

"I get really jittery and nervous sometimes when I'm running outside and I see someone I don't know. It's that constant reminder in your head. You're like 'who is that, where are they at, are they following me?'" Collins said.

Here's how the app works:

• You can have police make sure you get from point A to B safely.
• Police can also make sure you get there within your estimated arrival time.
• Or if you feel immediate danger, then you can push the emergency button and your phone's GPS location will instantly pop up on a map so police will know where to find you.

"It just puts an ease to my mind to know that if I was to push a button they could follow me and know where I was," Collins said.

"It's another tool in our tool belt for public safety," Patti Buhl, NSU Director of Public Safety.

Now that the trial period is over, campus police are encouraging everyone to download this free app.

"It's better to have it and not need it than need it and not have it," Buhl said. "I think it will help in reporting things that don't feel quite right, and I hope it encourages people to contact us if there's something they don't feel is quite right."

If you don't have a smart phone, then police recommend you put the police department's number on speed dial.

NSU is the first school to use this app, which is made by a Tulsa company called Illume Mobile. One of the Vice Presidents for Illume said other schools and businesses across the country have showed interest in the safety app.