This is the second in a two-part series about a mobile application designed to improve public safety and awareness at college campuses. In today’s feature, FirstNet talks to Northern Virginia Community College Police Chief Daniel Dusseau about the university's use of the LiveSafe application and how it is helping to improve to improve communications among students, faculty members, and public safety on the university's 10 campuses and centers. Read part one on the FirstNet blog.
By Kyle Richardson, Public Affairs Specialist
One of the largest users of the LiveSafe application is Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA). FirstNet had the opportunity to discuss the application with campus Police Chief Daniel Dusseau, who also sits on LiveSafe’s advisory committee. The committee is comprised of 11 members who are active or retired from federal and state government agencies such as the FBI and Secret Service, as well as military law enforcement and technology industry leaders. They make recommendations for improvements based on their past experiences and use of the LiveSafe app.
Chief Dusseau began using the application to enhance the efforts of NOVA campus safety this past April. After an intentional “soft roll-out” period, the app has been downloaded by more than 1,100 students, faculty and parents, and has already received several tips involving minor incidents on their ten campuses and centers. While almost half of the calls to date have been quality of life related, such as noise complaints, Chief Dusseau says they have been useful for getting users and public safety acclimated to the app and to develop trust between the university community and public safety.
“I’d rather deal with the issue now upfront than worry about ten other incidents happening,” said the 25-year law enforcement veteran who in his last two assignments was a district commander and the commander of the criminal investigation division in a high-crime jurisdiction in Maryland. “In my last job I learned to start helping facilitate the repairs in the neighborhood, which is the community policing part of it. If we do that here at the college and if people are going to take the time and use [LiveSafe], we’re going to take care of it.”
He said the app is popular with a 24-hour police dispatch center dedicated to coordinating police response to all NOVA locations. The dispatcher on duty receives a sonar-like ping when a message comes in from someone using LiveSafe. “Dispatchers think it’s fantastic,” he said. It improves officers’ ability to quickly identify suspects because, “traditionally when a call comes in, the dispatcher is trying to type and listen to the officers and take the phone call and write it down. All the information is here, they don’t have to write it down. They may have to type back but it saves them a lot of time. They can do chats faster than phone calls.”
Chief Dusseau says he likes the simplicity of the app and is in close contact with the LiveSafe team to discuss possible new features. The next iteration of the dashboard will have social media capabilities that will enable campus public safety to send tweets.
Chief Dusseau looks forward to the deployment of a nationwide broadband network dedicated to public safety. He believes it will enable public safety to incorporate applications and innovative services into their mission. “The more information that is available and being able to drill down as much as you want will help us all to do our job better.” To see a demonstration on how NOVA is using the LiveSafe app, please visit their website: http://www.nvcc.edu/current-students/police/livesafe.html
Scroll over the photo below to view more photos from the photo album
Northern Virginia Community College Uses LiveSafe App to Help Keep Students, Faculty Safe:
