Homeland Security Today: Rave Wireless, Inc., Framingham, Mass., a provider of safety applications for mobile users, has announced that the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has launched the Rave Guardian personal mobile alarm system to offer all students, faculty and staff a direct connection with campus police, whenever and wherever they need it. Rave Guardian (a phone-accessed application) can be armed, and when triggered, automatically sends the user's picture, mobile number and personal information to campus police. Rave Guardian works on any cell phone from any provider in the US, can be used with any emergency notification system, and in many cases can even display the user's GPS location on a map for campus police to provide assistance more quickly.

Other institutions that have recently signed on to use Rave Guardian include Colorado State University and SUNY-Oswego. These institutions and others recognize that the cell phone can be used as a precautionary tool to keep individuals and campuses safe through improved community policing, and not just as a reactive tool for broadcasting alerting after incidents occur.