University of Houston campus aims to improve emergency response

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University of Houston-Clear Lake (UHCL) is a public university based in Houston, Texas with over 6,500 undergraduate students. To improve emergency response times on the 524-acre campus, university security leaders have turned to an emergency communications app to connect public safety officials and the campus community.

The public safety department at UHCL implemented the SafeZone mobile app by CriticalArc to help decrease time elapsed between emergency calls and responders' arrival on the scene.

UHCL Executive Director of Public Safety and Chief of Police Russell Miller said with the app, anyone in the campus community can request assistance with a push of a button on their smartphone, "whether it’s an emergency, a medical issue or they want to check in as a lone worker after hours," he said.

In an emergency, a person can call 911, but on a campus, it’s often challenging for responders to find an individual’s exact location, according to CriticalArc Chief Operating Officer Darren Chalmers-Steven. The mobile app can help provide campus safety officers with the exact location of the user to respond to the incident.

Situational awareness should be at the forefront of your security program. It can mean the difference between life and death in a workplace emergency.

Security’s digital transformation is now entering stage 5. Complex security technologies are connected to HR systems, global security operations centers, and other building technologies in a world where employees now work in two places: home and the corporate office.