West Texas A&M Turns Cell Phones into Crime Prevention Agents

School implementing 'uTip' text-a-tip service from e2Campus

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Jun 16, 2011, 11:15 ET

CHARLOTTE, N.C., June 16, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- From booth #611 at the IACLEA 2011 Conference, e2Campus® announced that West Texas A&M University is the latest school to implement the "uTip" text-a-tip technology. The school plans to have the program in place by the start of the fall semester. Once in place, campus safety and security officials will get text message originated tips from students and others about crimes and emergencies in real time.

Story Photo: http://www.e2Campus.com/media/cell_phone_crime_tips.jpg

"The best way to enhance any safety and security program is through prevention," explains James Webb, CIO at West Texas A&M. "uTip is a bridge between our campus constituents and law enforcement officials.

"Over 95 percent of our students carry cell phones and it was the next logical step. It will provide our students, faculty, and staff with the ability to anonymously communicate prevention information to safety and security officials in real time, which creates a safer campus for everyone."

Webb continued, "Campus safety and security officials in the University Police Department will receive the tips. UPD serves as the University's public safety answering point and operates a 24-hour dispatch service.

"The new service will be advertised through our Cisco digital signage system this fall and promoted at New Student Orientation. Posters will be created and placed in strategic locations around campus.

"uTip is a cost-effective and easy-to-deploy solution that instantly turns thousands of cell phones into crime prevention agents."

uTip allows anyone in the school community to alert the school simply by sending an SMS text message from a standard cell phone. Anyone in the community can use the service to report illegal activities they see, such as theft, vandalism, drugs, cheating, bullying, fighting, and domestic disputes. Tipsters can also alert the school to suspicious packages, disorderly sports fans, or questionable behavior from fraternities or sororities.

Schools can have uTip set up in less than one minute, and implementing the service is as easy as posting their uTip Keyword in conspicuous locations. Introductory pricing starts at $195 a year for a campus population of 5,000 or less. For pricing specific to your school, please contact [email protected] or call 800-936-3525 x1.

About e2Campus

Used by more than 750 schools around the country, e2Campus is the leading safety communication solution for education. The e2Campus 360 Safety Suite includes uAlert, uTip, uSafe, uConference, Hotline and the Multimodal Showcase. The award-winning flagship service, uAlert, is the first and most trusted unified emergency notification system in education. Higher education clients include large schools such as Arizona State, Penn State, and Cal Poly as well as hundreds of smaller schools with as few as 100 students. K12 clients include large school systems such as St. Tammany Parish Public School System to small private day schools. To learn more, visit www.e2Campus.com. Existing client administrators can discover online resources in a peer-driven community at www.e2Campus.org.

About Omnilert

Omnilert, LLC develops intuitive communication technologies that keep communities safe and connected. The company's flagship service is a Tier-1 unified mass notification system that enables a single person to communicate timely information to thousands of people anywhere, anytime, on any device or service. The award-winning company's 3,000 clients include the U.S. Army, Bayer, Mazda, sanofi-aventis, Arizona State University, Penn State, Marine Corps Marathon, YMCA, American Red Cross, and UNICEF. Omnilert solutions are sold under the brand names e2Campus, Amerilert, and RainedOut. The privately held company is headquartered in Leesburg, Va., and at www.omnilert.com online.

SOURCE Omnilert, LLC