University of Wisconsin-Madison Police Department promoted a free safety app on their website Wednesday in response to an increase in concern from students about safety both on and off campus.
The app, called WiscGuardian, was originally launched by UWPD in August of 2017.
The article on the UWPD website describes that the app has a feature which lets the user build up a system of “guardians” consisting of friends and family who are automatically sent information about the user’s location in an emergency.
Marc Lovicott, director of Communications at UWPD, said the app was developed as a tool students can use to easily reach the police in both emergency and non-emergency situations by the touch of a button.
“It’s a pretty slick app that’s been around for a while, but we just started promoting it more in light of some incidents we’ve seen over the last couple of weeks,” Lovicott said.
Sophie Morris, a freshman at UW-Madison, has recently been working to learn more about safety measures both on and off campus. Her petition to increase the number of blue light emergency phones on campus has now gained over 1,200 signatures.
Morris said that she didn’t previously know about the WiscGuardian app and thinks that more should be done to raise awareness about it.
“I wish that so many more people knew about this app,” Morris said. “Having tools like this that can connect people to others who can help them in a dangerous situation is really essential.”
Morris also said that she expects more work to be done to improve campus safety.
“When you’re talking about people’s lives, futures and safety, there is no such thing as too much precaution. It’s all about making these resources not just available, but well-known,” she said.
