In May, Eastern Washington University police released a new emergency response app, EagleSafe. Now, they are working alongside university leadership to remove the red and blue emergency buttons scattered across campus.
The decision has left some students concerned about scenarios where they might not have access to a smartphone but still require immediate aid.
“There is always a little bit of a ‘what if’ scenario,” said EWU sophomore Kaden Vinegar.
EWU Freshman Kiki Cleveland shared a few of these scenarios.
“If you are in panic mode, it is kind of difficult trying to pull out your phone when you could just run to a button,” Cleveland said. “Maybe they should keep [the emergency buttons], just in case. Or if someone’s like, kind of drunk and they’re not thinking about their phone. They can’t get into their phone because they’re intoxicated.”
EWU Deputy Police Chief Sean O’Laughlin said that the emergency buttons around campus were very outdated, though, and that there are ways around not having a phone handy.
“If you think about an emergency, if you went and pushed on that [button] you’re not going to stay there if someone is chasing you, right? You’re going to continue to run,” O’Laughlin said. “If your phone died, I would say the big thing would be to get into a building, an unlocked building, and call 911.”
Since its release in May, the EagleSafe app has been used by students over 30,000 times, compared to the 7,000 total of the previous system. It has a variety of features, including the options to send your live location to police, report a tip, or even get a call sent to your phone to use as an excuse to leave an uncomfortable social situation.
EWU freshman Aichetou Fall said that knowing the EagleSafe app would send an alert if there is a safety risk makes the campus feel safe.
“I feel like it is more useful to only have the app because people are always on their phone, so they have easier access having to find somewhere with only those,” Fall said.
The largest concern students expressed in relation to safety was an incident last quarter involving a petitioner shouting threats at students out front of the PUB.
“We were responding in a very quick manner to an incident like that,” O’Laughlin said. “We also did some presentations after that — I know Chief Day spoke to some of the students in the aftermath to try to give them an update of the case and their safety.”
Regardless of thoughts about the switch from physical buttons to the EagleSafe app, all of the students The Easterner interviewed reported that they usually felt either neutral or safe on campus.
“I feel really safe,” said EWU freshman Makayla Thomason. “I know the police have come to some events to be like, ‘hey, you can text us, call us any time and we’ll be there to walk you,’ which I haven’t needed — thank God — but it’s nice to know it’s there.”
