CAMPUS: SafeZone aims to improve campus safety
By Amanda Aguirre
Bridge contributing writer
Published Wednesday, Sept. 10, 2025
A recently created campus app called SafeZone offers public safety features for students and others at TAMIU. Not many are aware of the app, which is being promoted by the Texas A&M International University Police Department.
SafeZone is designed to be an easily accessible app for students or others to use in the case of an emergency, non-emergency or medical assistance. With the click of a button, someone can assist the user quickly.
A TAMIU student uses the SafeZone App on campus on Sept. 8, 2025, in this photo illustration.
TAMIU PD Chief Cordelia Perez said, “Not many students use the app because not many know about it.”
Examples of when to use the buttons include car crashes or accidents via the red Emergency button. In another example, when athletes walk late at night from practice and would like an escort to their car, they can press the blue Non-emergency button.
If students or someone around them has a medical emergency, they can press the green First aid button. Lastly, if they need someone to talk to about mental help, they can press the Well-being assistance button.
There is someone always on the clock ready to assist, whether it be through dispatch or one of the officers.
Since this is an open campus, which anyone can enter at any time, it might cause uneasiness. This especially applies to the parents of students who live thousands of miles away or those who attend Early College, also located on the TAMIU campus.
TAMIU dispatcher Damaris Rivera is one of two people in Webb County to hold an EMP license. She demonstrated how her office receives calls and pushes requests from the SafeZone app.
“We receive about two calls a day,” she said. Their most common calls regard car accidents on the west wing of the University.
Perez recommends this app not only for students, but also professors and staff to download. Many students stay late on campus to study and some professors stay late to grade assignments, so this app can offer health and security options whenever needed.
