At the University of Glasgow, SafeZone has delivered on its primary objective, increasing preparedness. The control room team can now see the precise location of every officer, in real-time, as well as the locations of support volunteers, such as fire wardens and first aiders.
Two-way direct communications makes it easy for the incident commander to direct responders rapidly to the locations where they are needed, to keep them updated as events unfold and to improve their coordination with emergency services.
Day to day, SafeZone is not just used by security officers; students and staff can use it 24/7 to request emergency response or general assistance anywhere on campus. It also lets users get in touch wherever they are, including when they travel abroad. Since it was deployed, it has enabled decisive interventions in a number of incidents including cases of sexual harassment, students at risk of stalking, and lone worker safety. In one case a student used SafeZone when she was threatened by a former partner. She was able to alert the security team, who pinpointed her precise location on the top floor of her tenement building, enabling police to make an arrest in under three minutes. Lone workers travelling and studying across Glasgow’s extensive and dispersed estate have been protected too, no matter if they are on or off campus, including researchers working alone in the university’s science laboratories out of hours, such as essential COVID projects.
