MU is introducing a new safety app that tracks user locations in real time. The Rave Guardian allows family and friends to follow a user’s location until they’ve reached their destination safely.
The app also provides safety resources, like MUPD call number or active shooter procedures.
Katharine Dahl is the director of product marketing at Rave Mobile Safety. She said the company started years ago as a service where students called on landlines when they arrived at their location safely.
“The latest version of the app was released in June. That is where we saw the addition of the features such as the hosted content, the routed chats, the social safety timers to allow even further enhancements of features and functionality that we know have been well received by campus communities for years,” said Dahl.
Dahl said the Rave Guardian app is now being used by 45 percent of college students nationwide.
MU is the newest campus to implement the app.
Sara Diedrich, a MU spokesperson who specializes in public safety, said, “We decided to invest in the Rave Guardian app system because it allows our police department to communicate directly with users and engage with the campus community in a way that is familiar with most of us, which is our cell phones.”
MU students can open the app through their school emails and be connected to resources on campus, such as the Title IX office and Residential Life.
MUPD will also provide information about the app at Safe Mizzou Week, September 17-20.
Editor's note: This article was updated to reflect that the name of the company developing the Rave Guardian app is Rave Mobile Safety.