 And thanks for tuning in. Welcome to another episode of In the Studio. The program is brought to you by Davis Media Access and broadcasts on Davis Community Television, that's Comcast Channel 15, and AT&T Uverse, Menu 99. We're also online at dctv.davismedia.org and on YouTube. I'm Lynn Weaver and I'll be your host today. Enlisting smartphones and virtual technology for keeping us safe has been the latest new technology around the country. The White Files, for example, has recently put in place a new program nationwide called Apps Against Abuse, AAA, in an attempt to curb domestic and sexual abuse and dated violence and also other aggressions. And this main feature is to keep people, young adults especially, connected to their trusted friends and also providing them with very easy access to local police departments and also hotlines, for example. Similarly, UC Davis has put in place some very smart new technology and innovative programs in their continuous campaign to keep us safe on and off campus. And to talk about this crucial topic, I have invited two UC Davis experts to comment and explain these new programs and new apps. And I have here, I have the pleasure to have here with me, Andy Fell. He is the Associate Director for Science and Research Communication and the spokesperson for the UC Davis news and media relations as well as the spokesperson for the UC Davis Police Department. Welcome. Andy has also, he's also well known on campus for his egghead blog, which I enjoy very much. And then we have Lieutenant Brian Buckley. He's the Director of Security for UC Davis and he's here representing Chief Matthew Carmichael. Gentlemen, welcome. Thank you. Thank you for being here. Now, I'm going to ask Brian first. Let's talk about the Aggie Garden app. And it's a mobile app and for iPhones and Android devices, I believe. So what does, what is it? Okay. Tell us. Well, first of all, I'd like to stop. Thank you for having us today. From a security standpoint, obviously, anything that we can do to further the safety and security of everyone at the connected to the university, whether it's students, faculty, administration, staff, visitors. So the opportunity to talk about this one aspect of technology and security is very important to us. So thank you for that. Aggie Guardian is an app that developed out of a larger program that the university purchased called Rave Guardian. And we were able to rename it under our own moniker of Aggie being Aggie School. And basically the premise of the app is to allow anyone who is a UC affiliate, has a UC Davis email address to download the app onto their phone, put personal information into that that's theirs. It's their personal information. And then it allows them to be, I guess the proper way is to look at it, to have themselves be tracked on trips that they may make across campus or anywhere within the vicinity of the university so that they can actually have kind of a virtual guardian that follows them and is basically a protection for them to know that they're gonna make it safely across campus to wherever they may want to go. The premise is you go in, you download the app, you fill in your personal identifying information into this form. It then turns into the Aggie Guardian. And the example I would give you is what you would do is when you, let's suppose it's a student, it's 10 o'clock at night and that student wants to travel from one building back to their dormitory. They've studied late and now it's time to head home. Normally in the past they may have come to us and called us for a physical escort which we would be happy to do and we'd still be happy to do to this day. But this allows them to say, all right, I am gonna be leaving here. It's gonna take me 10 minutes to get to my dormitory. I have people that I want to reach out to that have already been pre-approved in this app and I will let them know that I am gonna be making this trip and it should take 10 minutes. And when I get to the other end of the trip, I go back into the app and say, I've made it successfully, you turn it off and it's a protection. Should something happen? Should that 10 minutes elapse and the person has not reached their destination? There is concern, something has happened. The Aggie Guardian app automatically alerts whoever the guardian is. The default would be the UC Davis Police Department. But it could be anyone you as the student have chosen to be your guardian. And that person then receives a phone, text, email saying that this individual may be in difficulty. They can try and reach out to the person and that would be the premise of the whole thing. This is excellent, it's excellent. Let's take a look. I have a couple of pictures that I'd like to display. They're perhaps a little difficult to see, but perhaps Andy, can you tell us what this is? It's the welcome screen and this is assuming you have an Android phone or a smartphone, this is the first page you see. Well yes, there's a welcome screen for the app. You can see there are three buttons at the bottom there. One of them is to set the timer that Brian was just talking about. And that is probably the principal function of Aggie Guardian is you can set this timer that will count down and go off if you don't deactivate it. So if I expect to take 10 minutes to walk from the library back to my dorm, I can set that timer. And once I get to my destination, I turn it off. If I don't turn it off, it goes off, it alerts the police or alerts on my guardians. And the other items you see there are you have the ability to contact the police through the app. You can make a 911 call from the app. You can also text a tip to police department. So if you see something suspicious going on on campus, you can use the app to send a quick piece of information to police dispatch. Well, that's wonderful. They would have a location, they have some information, they can send an officer to investigate. Well, let's take a look at the second picture and this is the location. Now, I'm not certain if this is location, the person with the app is apt. This would be the location of the phone of the person's using. So the app is tracking location the same way as when you use a mapping function on your phone. That's right, yes. So it's locating the phone in that way used by a sort of cell phone network. Right. So if the, once you set the timer, the police dispatch don't actually see anything except that a timer somewhere has been set. Yes. Only if the alarm goes off, do they see your location from the phone? I see. And some status. And then they can know where to send an officer to investigate. And by only seeing it, if needed, they protect the privacy of the person. Exactly, it's protecting the person's privacy. Yes. Wouldn't you agree, Brian? Yeah, absolutely. It's the particular screenshot you have there is by the arboretum, which is an area that is particularly sensitive. It's a sensitive area. It's open just if you don't know this. It's open 24-7 to the entire public. The app, not the arboretum. No, the arboretum. And the arboretum. Yes, it's open 24 hours a day. I thought it was open. No, people run and use it. In fact, we're in the process now. It's interesting that you happen to pick that one spot. We're in the process of putting in little stations with remote phones on that very walkway, the runway there, so that people that may not have a cell phone with them will be able to reach out to the police department. And that was my question. What if you don't have a smartphone? What do you do? So, of course, everybody has a smartphone these days. But there are also stations on there on campus, not just in the arboretum. I mean, the smartphone app is something we're offering as a service to the community. Yes. So there's a number of programs that we'll talk about to enhance campus security, such as the Safe Ride program, which we'll probably talk about in a minute. Yes, we will. Now, we don't at this time have those kind of emergency phones located around campus. Yes. But that is something, as Brian said, that's something that's being put in. Yes. And, of course, they're less evident or less accessible to young people and faculty and so on who live with their iPhones in their pockets and everything. Yes. People spend a lot of time on their phones these days. Well, I do. Yes, I certainly do. And I'm sure you do, too. There is the third picture that I like. And this is the safety timer. Yes, exactly. Now, this is what Andy, you were saying. You set it to a certain time. Now, what happens if you forget to deactivate it? It will prompt you shortly before it runs out. Oh, I see. So there is a prompt. An acoustic, I mean, is it a ding, ding, ding prompt? Yes. There's some kind of acoustic prompt and a notification on your phone that your timer is about to expire. Do you want to deactivate it? So you don't become terribly annoying to the police department or your friends by constantly forgetting. And you do need to put in a pin number to deactivate it, to set it and to deactivate it. I understand. And that's so that, say, somebody grabs your phone, they can't just turn it off for you. I'm very impressed. What a sophisticated device and yet so simple to use. It's a simple idea. And it has been deployed at some other universities as well, and they've had a good experience with it. So we're looking forward to seeing how well it works out at UC Davis. Well, the other comment that I had is the application, this app is free only for people who have a UC Davis email address. Isn't that correct? That is correct, yes. For the moment anyway. And we'll review some of the applications like the WARNME and the ALARM system, which I believe are open to all the community. Absolutely, yes. And so let's go with that because I think the only thing that I have that comes to mind is have people abuse this? Well, it really is brand new. It's only been out a couple of months. The anticipation is we're just concluding now with our school year when we bring in our new entering class this fall. This is going to be a part of the rollout to give it to them as an opportunity. I mean, if I'm a parent, I'm going to love to hear about something like this. Because as I always tell people from my realm, I'm entrusting you, meaning the UC Davis, the family, the everybody with my most important asset, my child. So please take care of them. And that's what we're doing. That's what this is about. Sounds like a wonderful, wonderful. And a little bit later, we're going to talk about how do you promote this and the outreach. But I wanted to, so there's about four initiatives and smart technology that I want to talk about today. So let's go to the Safe Rides program, because this is a fantastic program from the way. So can you describe it? Yeah, I really have to give my boss. I love my boss anyway. But this was kind of his brainchild, to be quite honest with you. Matt Carmichael. My car, my car. Yes, wherever you are, Matt. So if he gets a chance to watch this, he probably will. He's the guardian. He's the guardian. Very good. That's what we'll call him from now on. That will be on his door tomorrow morning. No, so it was his idea to, first of all, put vans around campus that could take disabled people to and from wherever they needed to go with campus. And he amazingly enough, we did not have such a vehicle on on campus. Yes, it is. I mean, here we are in 2014, now 15, and we didn't have such a thing. Well, you do have Unitran. Correct. But I'm talking about something that could be specific to an individual within the campus that you could go to and from that's not a bus, that's off hours. And on call. On call. Because Unitran is not on call. They're not on call. They're not there. So it was his idea to take that. That was probably the initial concept. And then it just sort of evolved into, well, let's move it into a project where we can actually give students rides, mostly from campus to places off campus at times when Unitrans does not run, so that they can be safely given a ride. There's a ride on us. No charge. You will be taken home safely. And again, using your smartphone, you book the ride. The driver knows who you are, where you are. You know when the driver is coming, actually, through the smartphone. It's very sophisticated. And it's grown in deep, in balance, yeah. I can imagine. So my question would be, how far can you take these students? Do you have a perimeter? It is in the city of Davis. Within the city of Davis. Yeah, it's pretty extensive. It really, again, it's kind of the offer. That's fabulous. I mean, anywhere in Davis. It's quite a, I don't know where we're finding the budget to do it, but we're doing it. And I think he has, again, had the vision to move this forward. I know other, our sister campuses in other parts of the UC are looking to do it. And some of them already have some things to this degree. And what about the medical school? Do you have such a service at the medical school? Not at this time. But hold that thought, right? So yeah, it's, again, this whole thing has evolved really within the last year. And we went from, we were starting to track a couple, and then I think we're up to a couple thousand rides, 6,000 rides a month. Yeah, that's amazing. It's the new trend now, as I mentioned, the White House has put out this app, which I think it's, it was actually Joe Biden and Secretary of Health and Human Services, Ibelius, who came up with this. And I think it's a good start. But of course, it's a different, it's different. But I know other campuses around the country have had, but not nearly as extensive as what you have from my research anyway. Yeah, we're in the process of having to buy more vans as our success. And more drivers. Well, the interesting part is the beauty of this, too. And again, hats off to Matt Carmichael, because he's made extensive use of what we call Aggie hosts. And they are students who receive security training, go through classes, and really are a kind of adjunct to the police department. And I've used them plenty of times. And they're students. They're students, but they wear a uniform. They don't have firearms and things like that, but they serve a great function of not being police but not being civilians, and they can help, and they actually are drivers for these things. That's very interesting. And we'll talk a little bit about the Citizens Academy as well a bit later. But Andy, you had something to say. Well, I was going to say that the Aggie hosts, this is a great program. It was in existence before. It's expanded a lot under Chief Carmichael. And his insight is to have students provide security for students. So the face that the students see around campus now, checking doors and saying hello to people and just keeping a lookout for suspicious activity, are other students. Yes. And they're driving the vans. They're doing the walk arounds at late at night. And this is a great point because the face of students is perhaps less intimidating than the face of Sorry, Brian, the police department. Well, it's more of a familiar face. It's someone like me. Yeah. And it's great. It's great to do that. Now we have, I would like to show a short video clip that is actually on your website. Oh, sure. And on YouTube. And that's why I stole it from YouTube. And I think it's a very nice video clip. If we could have the video clip of the safe rides, that would be wonderful. And feel free to comment as we go along. The lives of the safe ride services, are you talking yet? Yeah. Let me help you in the video. Safe Rides is the escort service provided by the UC Davis Police Department. With a simple phone call or a few touches on your smartphone, an Aggie host security officer will pick you up from anywhere on campus to anywhere in Davis. The service also includes the campus's only 24 seven VIP wheelchair transportation. This is a great video. Any quick comments on this video? I think it shows very simply how the system works. Yes. They're working late at the library. They need to get back. They can call the service through their phone and have a van with a train driver come and pick them up, take them when they need to go in Davis. That's fantastic. And I saw the bushes quivering there. That was Andy behind the bush. Yeah. Shaking the bushes. And I think we know that UC Davis is a pretty safe campus. This is a pretty safe community. Yes. It gives people the extra reassurance that they can get where they want to go. Yes. In safety. Yes. And again, I bring up the outreach and how do you promote these apps because they are a deterrent. If you promote them, well, maybe outside. Well, we have been working to roll this out in the past month or so through the news media, but also through we've been working with the Student Affairs Office to roll this out through their websites and their material that goes directly to students. Yes. And I expect in the fall, as we have the freshman coming in and new students coming in, there'll be more outreach to them as well. And I think especially parents of new students will be very interested in these kind of measures. This is one of those that has caught fire on its own. Once you have a few students that I can get a free ride, where I need to go late at night, I mean, Of course. We've done very well, and students are the best form of communication on this one. And it's worked out very, very well. I'm so glad. And actually, I did see an article in the Davis Enterprise, so if you put more articles and the community and perhaps the Woodland paper will be nice. The thought that I have, and I might be wrong, is to try and reach people who hopefully read these publications. And if you have strange ideas, they'll know that. Well, we've had coverage on local TV as well. Oh, good. Good. Local TV has covered this, too. Well, we are going on with another, The Warn Me, and the alarm. The alert. The alert systems. Can you tell us a little bit about that? Andy, Brian, whoever. Well, Warn Me is the system that we use for rapid notification of the campus of an emergency. Yes. After the Virginia Tech shooting incident, many campuses looked into adopting these kind of systems to tell the campus very quickly that there was some kind of life-threatening, life-safety emergency on campus. And it doesn't have to be, unlike the app we just talked about, this anybody can sign up for. I see. Which means, for example, people who are not connected to the university can sign up. Is your medium of distribution email, mostly? Email and text message and voice. OK. So we encourage everybody on campus who has a UC Davis email address or a landline phone. They're going to get it automatically. Is it automatically? Right. But we encourage people to go and add their cell phones so they can get cell phone calls and text messages as well. And the new system can also transmit through social media too. Wonderful. And there is a facility for people who don't have a UC Davis email address to add themselves, such as parents, friends, contract who may be working on the campus for a short period of time, other people who may be on campus, affiliated to campus, but don't have a necessarily UC Davis login. And the last innovative program, and I'm going to look at Brian to talk a little bit about it, is the Citizen, sorry, not the Citizen, the Cadet Academy. Can you, we have a few minutes left. So can you please, I was going to show a video, but I don't think we'll have time to do that. But I refer people to the UC Davis Police Department website. There's a very nice video there that shows what this Cadet Academy does. And it's very entertaining, but perhaps you can give us a preview. Again, I keep giving a lot of accolades to my boss, but this again was his idea. He's going to be very, very famous, famous guy, right? So no, he came up with it. What about Andy? You haven't given any? Well, Andy and I, we're along for the ride. This guy, you just catch on his coattails, and then you go. So he recognized that there was a great pool of potential candidates for police officer positions amongst our own, obviously, how many, 35,000 students each year. And rather than let that great pool of potential candidates simply come and go, here's a great opportunity should they have an interest in police work and have an interest in moving into that career field, why not go amongst them, develop, find 30 or 40 who would make a Cadet class, go through, get the training. We provide all the training individually to these students. It's somewhat rigorous. It's physical. It's test-taking. Everything you would imagine from an academy, at the end of that particular time, they are actually pretty well suited to go to a full-born police academy. And we, ourselves, have gone ahead and picked each year several of these students to go at our cost to one of these academies. And then they graduate. And we've hired some, several of them. Do they get academic credit for this? Is there a major or minor? I don't know that. No, this is an academic program. This would be on top of their academic work. I see. The Cadets are seniors. They're in their last year at UC Davis. They had been good at academic standing. And after they graduate, some will go to the police academy. Some get scholarships through the police department. And as Brian said, we have hired some as police officers here, and others have been hired in other police departments around California. There's a myriad of places in the state of California and elsewhere that have already hired these graduates from our own UC Davis student pool. So in other words, you're hiring from within. That's the, yes. And it gets back to what I said earlier with the Aggie host. It's about students providing security to students. And being recent students, they kind of get where students are coming from. I'm afraid our time is up. It's gone so fast because it's been very interesting. We definitely would like to have you back some other time. Thank you so much, Andy. And Brian, for being available. I am delighted to have learned more and to have had you here. And thank you all for watching. You can see this program again by streaming it on dctv.davismedia.org. And while you're there, you can check out some of our other previous in the studio episodes. There are a lot of very nice topics and outstanding guests. So I'm Nin Weaver. You've been watching in the studio. Thank you all and see you next time.