Public Safety introduced a new safety measure to Creighton’s campus this fall. The small keychain device called Peace of Mind (POM), produced by the Peace of Mind Co., is available for student purchase and allows students to receive the help they need at the touch of a button.
According to Director of Public Safety Mike Reiner, the Peace of Mind Company’s keychain fob safety button was sold to more than 670 Creighton undergraduate students this year.
“The POM device puts the power of the blue light emergency phone into the palm of your hand,” said Reiner.
The device itself is a small plastic button that is attached to a keychain and has a Bluetooth-enabled speaker and microphone. It then uses an app on a student’s smartphone in order to function.
When a student encounters an emergency on campus, he or she can press the button three times in order to call the public safety dispatcher. If the student is off campus and uses the device, it calls a 911 dispatcher.
“Primarily, the device is meant for security, but you can also see uses for medical emergencies,” said Reiner. “Anytime someone is in any kind of emergency, they can use this device to immediately make that 911 call and get the help they need.”
Reiner said that there were other features that make the POM device appropriate for a college environment. One of these features is a fake phone call that can be activated by holding the button down for five seconds after which a phone call is made to the user’s cell phone.
“If you’re in a situation that’s uncomfortable, but you don’t want to call the police, but at the same time you don’t have the social confidence to excuse yourself from the situation or walk away, it kind of gives you a free out.” Reiner said.
He also mentioned that this feature could be useful to students who want to help someone in need, but might be afraid of calling public safety or the police.
One of the students to purchase the POM device this year was College of Arts and Sciences freshman Katie Graham.
“Overall, I think the response from students, myself included, is that the POM could be really useful.” Graham said. “The device still has bugs [that] haven’t been worked out quite yet though.”
Among the “bugs” needing to be worked out with the device were issues in its initial set up. Graham mentioned that the directions did not provide much help. Reiner also admitted that there had been issues with pairing devices to cell phones, but he said that he reported the issue to POM Co. and they pushed updates to the software to make the pairing work better.
Graham also said that she did not like that the POM audibly says, ‘POM dialing’, expressing fear that the audibility may exacerbate any situation of danger.
Maggie Longenecker, College of Arts and Sciences freshman, also indicated that there are issues with the POM device. She said that the fake phone call doesn’t always go through and that it is easy to press the button by mistake.
“To be honest, I believe it makes parents feel better about their children on campus, particularly female students,” said Longenecker.
Reiner said that “parents are overwhelmingly supportive” of the POM device.
“I don’t want to over-sell it and say this is a silver bullet that will magically protect everybody, but I think it’s an important new tool to give our students the best safety options that we can give to people,” said Reiner. “I want to have the best options for them to protect themselves and to allow us to help protect them.”