CriticalArc recently announced that two UK universities have launched SafeZone this month.
Northumbria University, Newcastle selected SafeZone to enhance student and staff safety for 30,000 people on campus, while reducing costs through increasing the efficiency of everyday security operations across its six campus locations.
University of York is the first university in the Russell Group to launch SafeZone, making the innovative system available to 20,000 staff and students across four campus areas.
Through unparalleled situational awareness, SafeZone enables the University security team to coordinate its response to incidents quickly and efficiently. The intuitive SafeZone app makes it easy for students and staff to get help for any kind of emergency via a simple tap on their phone, so allowing security personnel to pinpoint their exact location. Armed with the intelligence necessary to assess the situation, organise resources and effect the most efficient response, the security team can build a culture of continuous improvement into the services they deliver every day to students and staff.
Denis Fowler, University of York’s Director of Health and Safety said: “Our campus is already very safe but SafeZone gives students and staff extra reassurance that assistance is no more than the touch of a button away. The system allows us to monitor the positions of security personnel and first aiders so we can deploy them swiftly and efficiently to provide assistance and support where necessary.”
SafeZone also permits staff working in potentially hazardous environments or alone after hours to “Check-In”, giving the security team visibility of their location at times when daytime resources such as building wardens are not on duty. All universities have lone-work policies but few, if any, have workable means for managing out-of-hours presence on campus. SafeZone Check-In delivers a practical solution.
The system also delivers fast and efficient mass notifications, superseding slow, unreliable and costly SMS. Specific instructions can be sent to response teams, or targeted messages to groups such as wardens or people at a particular location.
“We are committed to ensuring the best student experience at Northumbria,” said Damon Kent, Director of Campus Services at Northumbria University, Newcastle. “It was clear that the SafeZone solution, in conjunction with other control measures, could enhance safety on campus ensuring the fastest possible response to any incident. Being the first University in Europe to adopt SafeZone, we are excited about the extensive capabilities of the solution and are confident that it meets the needs of our students.”
Glenn Farrant, CEO CriticalArc, said “After rapid uptake among Australia’s universities in our domestic market, it’s great to welcome two forward-thinking and innovative UK universities to our customer family.”
“Universities and institutions of higher education in the UK and Australia share similar student demographics with very significant percentages of international students – for whom well-being and safety on campus is a top priority.”
Well suited to campuses and collegiate universities, SafeZone eliminates language difficulties and enables the fastest possible response to incidents to ensure the best outcomes. Driving significant efficiencies and cost savings, SafeZone safeguards university reputations, offers competitive advantage, and ensures preparedness against environmental and physical threats.
“SafeZone delivers significant efficiencies in everyday organisational performance across security, building wardens and first-aiders, with better incident response, better incident outcomes and more effective large-scale emergency management and recovery,” Mr Farrant added. “By providing an unobtrusive security application instead of traditional physical security equipment, we’re empowering the University to mitigate risk and improve brand reputation through enhanced duty of care, while gaining significant efficiencies through better management of manpower during incidents.”
