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"Kristina Anderson was shot twice in the back and once in the foot on April 16, 2007, when a gunman massacred 11 members of her Virginia Tech French class.  Thankful to have made a complete physical recovery, Anderson, now 25, has since dedicated herself to starting a non-profit that promotes campus safety and speaking around the country about her experience.\n\"In the past year and a half, I've become more outspoken about what happened and the importance of campus safety,\" Anderson tells Mashable. \"I didn't think more shootings would keep happening, but as they have I've become more involved.\"\nNow she's helping launch an app she thinks has the power to make campuses, and eventually communities, safer. LiveSafe connects students and campus police in a two-way dialogue through a smartphone app. The hope is that this app will not only help police better respond to crime, but also help prevent it. \nSEE ALSO: How Schools Communicate With Parents During a Crisis\n\n\"LiveSafe is a two-way communication between campus police and students,\" Anderson says. \"Students are comfortable with smartphones; they use them to check in, order food and post pictures. We thought, we should also use our phones to make our communities safer.\"\nShe and the LiveSafe team know that students hardly use the call feature on their smartphones, but they do text photos and videos. Therefore, students could be sending the police much more robust information. If a student gets robbed, you can ping the police using the app, sharing your exact location with a description of the crime \u2014 and you can remain anonymous when doing so.\nWith the app, the police can also communicate with students via push notifications, emails and voice, using either data or Wi-Fi connections. For Anderson, a notification from the campus police may have changed her fate six years ago. Even though the first shooting occurred at around 7:05 a.m., neither she nor her classmates had any knowledge of it when the gunman entered their class at 9:30 a.m.\nThe shooter's first victim, Anderson explains, is a typical \"test\" shot. Many times a first attack will precede a much larger second one, so the shooter can gauge what he or she can get away with.\nA Look at the LiveSafe App\n\n\nLiveSafe\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nLiveSafe Homepage\nThe homepage shows the app's main functions for students: Calling the police, viewing the safety map, alerting emergency contacts and reporting an incident.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nCampus Safety Alert\nPolice can send students push notifications with relavent safety updates.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nSelect Incident\nStudents select which type of incident they'd like to report from this menu.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nReporting Incidents\nStudents can anonymously report incidents.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nEmergency Map\nThe emergency map highlights relavent safety locations around campus.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nPolice Dashboard\nPolice can see an overview of all reported crime in this dashboard.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nPolice Map View\nThe police will see all recent reports in an adaptive map dashboard. They can prioritize crime and suspicious activity reports.\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\nLiveSafe co-founder Shy Pahlevani, like Anderson, drew from personal experience when creating the app. Pahlevani was robbed and wanted to know why he couldn't immediately respond electronically, so he and Samier Mansur built the app to empower people and communities in safety.\nLiveSafe is currently beta testing on two campuses, North Carolina's Winthorp University and the University of New Hampshire. Winthorp has seen 6,500 downloads on its campus of just 6,000 students \u2014 the neighboring community has embraced the app, as well. \nLiveSafe is currently only available for iOS, though an Android version is expected to roll out shortly. After receiving feedback from police chiefs, LiveSafe plans an open launch this summer.\nImage by Tim Sloan/ AFP / Getty Images; Screenshots courtesy of LiveSafe"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://mashable.com/2013/04/20/livesafe/>