CWRU Shield smartphone app aims to encourage safe behaviors, speed emergency response time

Free Android and iPhone app to use Indoor Positioning System technology to help safety teams find emergencies within buildings

Editor's Note: As of June 30, 2019, Case Western Reserve uses Rave Guardian. CWRU Shield is no longer active and should be deleted from all mobile devices. Download Rave Guardian on the App Store and Google Play. The university collaborated with Beachwood-based 911 Cellular to customize the company’s existing technology for use on the Case Western Reserve campus. The new system appealed to officials because it combines a range of features all tied to a device nearly ubiquitous within the campus community: a smartphone. The initiative has two overall goals:

•  to provide students, staff and faculty new ways to report suspicious behavior and actual incidents; and
• to give first responders additional options to obtain key information in case of an emergency.

University Police Det. Sgt. Daniel Schemmel led the project after learning about 911 Cellular’s work to develop an emergency-response system for grade schools. CWRU Shield allows users to:

• report emergencies to the nearest authorities;
• set “safety checks” to alert emergency contacts if they do not respond to the app’s timed reminders; and
• create “iReports” to send campus police photos and/or videos of crimes or potentially dangerous situations.

With CWRU Shield’s debut, 911Cellular and campus police believe Case Western Reserve is among the first universities nationally—if not the first—to use an Indoor Positioning System (IPS) to determine the approximate location of an incident within a building. Similar emergency smartphone applications use only the Global Positioning System (GPS), which pinpoints buildings and outdoor locations but is not as precise indoors as the IPS, which uses Wi-Fi location points to augment GPS findings. Case Western Reserve has more than 2,300 location points that the IPS system can use to help zero in on locations inside structures—sometimes down to the room number. Within large buildings in a campus setting, GPS has been found to be highly inaccurate, Schemmel said. To start, CWRU Shield will use IPS in Clarke Tower, Kelvin Smith Library, Gund Hall, Bingham Building, Adelbert Hall and the police headquarters, with additional locations scheduled to be included over time. At this time, if the user is not within a building equipped with IPS, CWRU Shield will revert to using GPS. Cleveland State University launched a version of the app earlier this year that, as of now, uses only the GPS model.

User Profiles

After downloading the app to their smartphones, users create profiles with as much personal information as they desire—including photos, contact information, medical conditions, emergency contacts and more. They also must allow the app to access their phones’ location services. The information is stored on a secure server that only CWRU Police and Security Services personnel can access. University staff will not access the information unless they receive an emergency call from a user’s smartphone. The ability to retrieve this information immediately allows dispatchers to provide first responders with relevant details, such as the caller’s identity, location and profile information.

Emergency Reporting

To access CWRU Shield’s emergency function, users open the app and tap the button (Police, Fire or EMS) that best matches the nature of the incident. If pressed within the covered area, the call, including location and profile information, goes to Case Western Reserve police with updates of and the user’s location every 20 seconds. The coverage area was designed to extend beyond the areas frequently traveled by students and is generally consistent with the Safe Ride program’s boundaries, said Dick Jamieson, vice president of campus services. The area extends north to Moulton Avenue, west to East 90^th Street, south to Fairhill Boulevard, and east to Overlook Lane, just west of Coventry Road (see coverage map). If the calls are made outside the app’s boundaries, the app tells users they are outside CWRU’s jurisdiction. From there, the call is transferred to the nearest 911 communications center.

Safety Checks

CWRU Shield also allows users to set safety checks that can send automatic alerts if they do not “check in” on their phones within a certain time period. A user might set such a check when walking from one building to another at night—for example, from Kelvin Smith Library to a residence hall. If the individual does not turn off the safety check using a private PIN before the pre-determined time expires, the system sends a SMS text message to the person’s emergency contacts, and also can contact CWRU police, depending on the setting the user chooses.

iReports

Through iReports, users can send photos and videos—anonymously, if desired—directly to CWRU Police. iReports can be used to share crime tips, suspicious activity, icy sidewalks, parking violations or maintenance issues. This function allows members of the campus community to report any non-emergency issue without the making a call. To download CWRU Shield, search for it on the iPhone App Store or on Google Play. A number of on-campus vendors are offering discounts to individuals who show the CWRU Shield app on their phones. Coupon sheets will be distributed across campus and also are available on the police website. Additional information/directions for CWRU Shield can be found on the CWRU Police and Security Services website at police.case.edu. *Disclaimers: CWRU Shield cannot be accessed when users do not have mobile phone coverage. To allow authorities to find a user’s location, “Location Services” must be enabled. For the app to track a user’s approximate location inside select buildings, the user must be connected to Wi-Fi. If you are not connected to Wi-Fi, CWRU Shield will determine your approximate location via your phone’s GPS. CWRU Shield will work on tablet devices if connected to Wi-Fi or through a cellular service, but a voice call will not be sent.