Photo Courtesy Emilio Suarez
The UTRGV Police Department encourages students to take advantage of new tools designed to keep the community safe and well informed, including the Campus Shield app.
UTRGV Police Community Engagement Officer Marco Huerta said he recommends using the Campus Shield app, a safety mobile application students can download for free.
The Campus Shield app offers a safe walk feature.
“We have people sometimes working late at night or taking classes late at night, or they need to be early at school to pick a bus or whatever may be, ” he said.
Huerta said students who feel unsafe walking to class, to their car or dorm are able to click on the safe walk feature and the call will go to the UTRGV Police Department.
“We then send a police officer or a security guard to their location to escort them to their vehicle or dorm,” Huerta said.
The app also helps track the time of arrival and location of UTRGV shuttles. The Campus Shield app also has an anonymous reporting feature.
“An example would be, you see something suspicious and you want to report it but you just don’t want to get involved, you can do it through that feature,” Huerta said. “You put in the information, submit it and they’ll ask if you wish [to be contacted] by law enforcement. You can even say yes or no. If it’s no, the report still goes in, and we won’t contact you.”
Exercise science senior Silvana Lopez said having the Campus Shield App on her phone and being able to contact University Police by pressing a button makes her feel safe at UTRGV.
Lopez said being able to track a shuttle location is useful for her since she travels to Edinburg three days a week and being on time for the bus is a constant worry.
“It’s very helpful because I can track it before I get to school and It also helps me decide when to leave my house in order to catch it on time.”
Communication in sciences and disorders junior Camila Hernandez said she has had experiences at school in which the app may have come in handy but she did not know it existed.
Hernandez said the ability to report anonymously would be a good reason to download it.
“Now that I know I can report anonymously, I’ll definitely take it into consideration when I see weird stuff around campus,” Hernandez said.
The Campus Shield App is available to download on the Apple App Store Google Play Store.
