The new SB Guardian App is now available for all Stony Brook students, showcasing new personal safety features to keep students connected with people they trust.

The app is free for iPhones and Androids. This is the first downloadable app for safety available to Stony Brook University students. Previously, students were able to sign up for Guardian alerts via email and text message.

The University Police Department recently announced this new app in its September
2014 newsletter.

“The registration used to be cumbersome,” Assistant to the Director of University Police Jason Casale said.

Casale said according to a report, about 600 students have downloaded the app. Besides sending out an email to the campus community a few weeks ago, UPD has not done anything yet to raise awareness of the new app, mainly because of the cold weather. UPD plans on increasing its presence in the Academic Mall once the weather gets nicer to promote the new app.

After downloading the app, the user is asked to enter their school email address. After filling out some quick information, picking a username and password and confirming that email address, the Guardian app is ready to go.

“Now that we put it in app form, students have accessibility to have all these features all in one app,” Casale said.

SB Guardian lets students pick “guardians,” or trusted individuals, to add to the app. Students can message them and alerts can be sent to them in an emergency.

“The Guardians feature is a great benefit of the app,” Casale said. “It depends on the person. It can be a roommate or anyone else you trust.”

The app allows the user to set a safety timer. This lets the students share their status and location to select people, intended to be used when they are walking home alone or meeting with someone they do not know. Their Guardians will be notified if their timer expires.

According to the Emergency Management website, if the user does not deactivate their timer when they arrive safely, University Police will be called.

If the timer is deactivated when the student arrives safely, the University Police Department will not receive a notification that a timer was ever set. Users can also add a voice message that will be sent to UPD if their
time elapses.

The Emergency Management website also states that in the event that a user is forced to deactivate their timer, Guardian has a false deactivation code that will automatically send a panic alert to the police. The code is one, number higher than the students pin. It will appear to turn
off normally.

SB Guardian also lets users make emergency calls and send text tips. They can call 911 within the app itself or send text or picture message tips if they see something suspicious. SB Guardian also allows students to call University Police directly from the app with just a click of a button.

“You can talk to each other and give reassurance to someone that you will look out for them when they go out,” Casale said.