Crime-Fighting Smartphone App Coming to BCC

Brevard Community College will take part in a new crime prevention initiative that will use a smartphone app and website to allow users to easily report tips about incidents on its four campuses.

The move was launched Thursday by the Brevard County Sheriff’s Office as part of a countywide crime-fighting plan.

The “iWatch Brevard County” app can be downloaded at www.iwatchbrevardcounty.com.

It allows anyone to send anonymous tips, report suspicious incidents, see crime-related photos, get alerts or track local crime.

College staff will be working with the Sheriff’s Office, local police departments and iWatch developer iThinQware to add a BCC-component to the app.

The feature would immediately alert BCC campus security and the appropriate law enforcement agency when someone uses the app to report an incident.

“If someone on campus used their phone and iWatch to report someone is breaking into a car, it would get forwarded to the correct officer on that campus within seconds so they can respond,” said Dan Elliot, iThinQware president.

He also said the app helps colleges more easily comply with federal requirements to report all campus crime statistics.

The app is the latest addition to a partnership between BCC and local law enforcement agencies that was announced in February to strengthen campus security.

The partnership included opening police substations on BCC’s Titusville, Cocoa, Melbourne and Palm Bay campuses to better protect the College’s 35,000 students, faculty and staff.

The BCC app will build on that effort by combining resources and messages, said Brevard County Sheriff Wayne Ivey.

"You can have the best message in the world but if you can't deliver it to the front door of the citizens, it's useless,” he said.

The iWatch application is translated into 32 languages and allows a user to report a crime in their own language, with the tip automatically translated into a language the officer can read.

“I want to thank Sheriff Ivey for including us in this important new initiative,” said BCC President, Dr. Jim Richey. “It’s another example of our collective commitment to ensure that students, faculty and staff are safe on our campuses.”

The app is currently used by 46 other law enforcement agencies across the nation, with Brevard County the first in Florida.