LOUISVILLE, Ky. — This semester students, faculty, and staff at the University of Louisville have a new and improved way to stay safe.
The Card Armor app allows students to report suspicious activity, find resources, and even get escorted around campus. The app is designed for everyone to feel safe and secure while on campus, whether during the day or at night.
"It's for their safety," UofL Police Major Oscar Chavez said. He's also a 36-year law enforcement veteran and had a daughter who goes to UofL. He says safety isn't just part of his job, it's part of his life.
"My daughter is a junior at UofL and I want all students to feel safe, the same way I want her to feel safe," he said.
The new app replaces the old app called Rave Guardian. It also replaces the blue light emergency poles that are a staple on college campuses around the country.
"[We had] well over 100 of them, but they weren't being used," Chavez said.
He said within his first six years within the UofL Police Department, those blue lights were pressed only twice and both times were pranks. Now, there are no blue light poles on campus, instead the Card Armor app has a mobile blue light feature.
"Instead of leap frogging around campus trying to find the student who pushed the button, the mobile app calls dispatch, allows us to GPS track and talk with whoever pushes it," Chavez said.
Another major obstacle to the stationary blue light poles was the accessibility to students. But now, the app brings the accessibility to the students' fingertips. Ashley Rutland, a junior at UofL says she's grateful knowing the university takes steps toward security and she can feel safe anywhere on campus.
"I live a little bit far from campus and I do walk a lot at night, so just being able to have something that I'm keeping on me as a safety mechanism is really comfortable," she said.
Click here to download the Card Armor app.
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