If you need help now, start here.
- If you are in danger, call 911.
- Save your campus police or public safety number in your phone before you need it.
- In New Orleans, the police non-emergency line is (504) 821-2222.
- If something has already happened, VictimConnect gives free, confidential help. Call or text 1-855-484-2846.
- If you are in crisis, call or text 988, or text HOME to 741741 to reach Crisis Text Line.
Whether a walk is safe depends on the place, the time and the route, and no app or plan can promise it. A plan makes it easier to stay on busy streets, to let someone know where you are, and to reach help quickly if something feels wrong.
Set up three things before you leave.
- Tell one specific person your route and when you expect to arrive. On iPhone, Check In can tell them automatically when you get there.
- Charge your phone and save your campus police number.
- Pick a route with lighting and people on it, and know which businesses or campus buildings are open late.
Your school publishes its crime statistics every year.
Colleges that receive federal student aid must give students and employees an annual security report by October 1 each year, under the Clery Act rules. It includes three years of campus crime statistics and the school’s safety policies. Ask your campus police or public safety office for escort hours and the locations of emergency phones.
Keep your attention on the street while you walk.
- Keep one ear free if you listen to music.
- Hold your phone for calls, not scrolling.
- If you think someone is following you, cross the street. If they keep following, go into an open business or a staffed campus building and call 911.
- Go somewhere with people rather than to your own door, so you aren’t alone when you stop.
Some apps can tell someone that you didn’t arrive.
Check In and Google Location Sharing let a friend follow your trip. Noonlight works differently: you hold a button while you feel uneasy and enter a PIN when you’re safe, and if you let go without the PIN, Noonlight notifies local police. Many colleges also have their own safety app.
If something happens, report it and ask for help.
Call 911 in an emergency. For anything else, call campus police or, in New Orleans, the NOPD non-emergency line at (504) 821-2222. VictimConnect gives free, confidential help; call or text 1-855-484-2846. The recovery guide on this site lists the next steps, including Louisiana’s 72-hour reporting rule for victim compensation.
Edge Orbital is developing a device for the walk home.
Edge Orbital, which publishes this site, is designing a small clip-on device that would use NowScape, its software in development, to show what’s moving near you on a walk home. The device still has to be built and tested. It would not call for help or prevent a crime, and it is not a substitute for the steps above.
Editor’s note: an earlier version of this article described Tripwire Recon, Edge Orbital’s iPhone app, as a safety tool. Tripwire Recon is a game and has no safety features.