University of Colorado at Colorado Springs Police Chief Jim Spice wonders if a new mobile application available to students might have saved Jacine Gielinski, who was raped and killed off-campus in 1997.
Students or faculty subscribing to the Denver-based MyForce service can launch the application on their smartphones when they’re walking across campus at night, or at other times when they’re concerned about their safety.
If they encounter trouble on campus and push the button on their phone’s touchscreen, they’re automatically connected to campus police and to a MyForce service center. Dispatchers see the student’s location from the phone’s GPS and learn their identity and background information.
Dispatchers monitor and record the call and send officers, if needed. They’ll also try to contact the subscriber.
The service works anywhere in the United States where mobile-phone service is available. Students who are off-campus, and anyone else who subscribes to MyForce, are connected to MyForce’s monitoring team, which will contact 911 if it appears there’s trouble.
Gielinski, 22, a CU-Colorado Springs senior, was abducted outside her boyfriend’s apartment in Colorado Springs by two men.
“I really believe that this is what MyForce is made for,” said Spice, also the school’s director of public safety. “Had she had that app up on her phone and was able to push it when she was abducted from behind, it very well might have saved her life.”
MyForce launched its service earlier this year. CU-Colorado Springs and UC Denver’s Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora are the first two schools to sign agreements with MyForce and promote the service to students. Subscribers pay $11.99 a month or $119.99 a year; MyForce is offering the service to students at participating campuses for $89.99.
CU-Boulder sophomore Rachel Treihaft signed up for MyForce this fall and also became a student advocate for the company, earning a commission on sales. The Boulder campus doesn’t have MyForce, so an alert from Treihaft’s phone would go to the MyForce center and possibly to 911.
The service replaced calling her parents and leaving her phone on before crossing campus alone at night. She’s more comfortable walking to the library, gym or coffee shop.
“This app was really appealing because it tracks your location, records everything, and has all your information about who you are so the police know who they are looking for,” she said. “I always have my phone with me, and it’s just an easy click and I feel safe.”
Though there are emergency “blue light” phones throughout campus, they don’t give Treihaft a strong sense of security.
MyForce chief executive Brad Zotti says he had the idea for the technology while walking through a university campus in 2009. He was looking at his GPS device as he walked by a blue-light phone, and a student walked by while texting on her phone.
“I thought, in this day and age, with everything that smartphones allow us to do, personal security should be available wherever you are,” he said. “Who would really attack anyone by one of those blue-light phones, and how effective are they really?”
Zotti, whose background is in private equity, founded the company with Denver lawyer- turned-businessman Charlie Groves. There are four employees in the company’s LoDo office. Much of the work is contracted out, Zotti said.
MyForce has fewer than 1,000 subscribers and is in talks with a handful of universities for its campus system. Its monitoring center is run by a company that monitors personal emergency response systems (as in medical or fire emergencies at home) and is registered with 911 systems in all 50 states, Zotti said.
“The majority of the law-enforcement groups are aware of our monitoring center, and they know who we are and that our service is valid,” he said.
Competitors are moving quickly. One calls 911 instantly, another notifies friends and family if there’s an emergency, and yet another sends camera images and GPS location to a monitoring team.
Zotti says MyForce is more comprehensive and easier to use, providing the most information to first-responders. The campus service is particularly appealing to parents, he said.
There are limitations. The GPS function typically works only outdoors, and false alerts can make their way to 911 dispatchers.
Doug Abraham, chief of police at CU’s Anschutz Medical Campus, said MyForce adds a layer of protection to existing campus security at no cost to the university. Particularly helpful is the GPS location and profile, created by the subscriber, with information such as a medical condition or the name of a former boyfriend under a restraining order, he said.
“This is as real time as anything can possibly be,” he said. “Everybody has got a cellphone in their hand. It’s a great little tool. I think it’s got a lot of potential.”
Greg Griffin: 303-954-1241 or ggriffin@denverpost.com
