In the summer of 2015, the University of Colorado Boulder Student Government joined forces with Housing and Dining Services and Police and Emergency Management to purchase a public safety smartphone application called LifeLine Enterprise (CU Boulder Today Article). The app has three features designed to provide the user with ways to call for help in case of an emergency.
The first is a panic button that allows the user to easily signal for help when encountering a threatening situation. When the user lifts their thumb from the button, a timer begins counting down to allow the user to disarm the alert signal before it is sent. If the user does not disarm the alert, the user is connected with the LifeLine Enterprise dispatch center which will validate the alert and call the police department with the user’s location if needed.
The second feature allows users to set a specific amount of time for a particular activity, such as walking home from class or going on a run. If the user does not deactivate the timer before the specific amount of time has expired, an alert will be triggered and LifeLine Enterprise will attempt to contact the user and validate the alert. If they are unable to make contact, LifeLine Enterprise will contact the local police department and provide the last known location of the user.
The last feature LifeLine Enterprise offers is an ability to enter three or more “lifelines” in a user’s profile. These “lifelines” will be notified only when LifeLine Enterprise determines the alert to be real and the user to be in danger. In these cases, at the same time LifeLine Enterprise is calling the local police department, they will trigger an alert to the user’s “lifelines” providing them with a notification of trouble, location of the user and contact information for the user’s local police department. If the user enters their code after they realize they triggered an alert inadvertently, the “lifelines” will get a second notification stating the user is safe.
The LifeLine service also includes the ability to call for help even if a user is separated from their phone or wishes to make the call more discreetly. You can download the app by doing one of the following:
- Text "LLR4Me" to 74700
- In the Apple App Store or Google Play Store, search LifeLine Enterprise
- Go online to the LifeLine Enterprise website
Once you have the app, open it on your phone and and use your Identikey@colorado.edu email address, and select University of Colorado Boulder from the list.
The LifeLine company has two versions of their mobile safety app. One is for a private citizen to download the app and pay for it on their own while the other is for universities and corporations to purchase for their community to use free. The latter is the one that CU Boulder students should download as the university has partnered with Lifeline Enterprise to provide this safety feature free to students and employees. When you download the app, make sure you download the Lifeline Enterprise version.
