Yet Another Reporting Tool—V911

The University of Maryland is ready to begin field-testing a smartphone application that will allow students to connect with campus police dispatchers, send them audio and video of an incident, and to have all that information sent directly to patrol cars in the field. Named “V911,” the app is part of a larger set of applications called MyeVyu that are tied together with a wide-area Wi-Fi (WiMAX) network, and which offer various social networking, scheduling, tracking and information features for the campus community. The V911 app was originally developed by the university’s graduate computer science team almost three years ago, but was stalled because of funding. Now the university plans a limited test of the app, and hopes to roll it out to all students this fall. In an emergency, a student would press a button displayed in the app, and would be connected by one of the campus’ 3,500 Wi-Fi base stations to the campus police comm center. Audio and video would be streamed to dispatcher, who could immediately send the information to the patrol car laptops of officers. UM police chief Kenneth Krouse has said of the app, “Everyone who is concerned with security and well-being stands to benefit.” Read about the field testing here.