PRAIRIE GROVE (KFSM) -- Prairie Grove School District, police and emergency managers tested an emergency alert app Wednesday (Oct. 3) that will help cut back on response times during school emergencies.
The app is called Rave Alert. It's used on more than 1,000 campuses across Arkansas.
School administrators can press a button and an alert is sent straight to officer's cell phones with a location and exactly what that emergency is. The main goal of the app is to cut back on emergency response times especially in the case of an active shooter.
Central EMS is still notified but while they are gathering information on the emergency, officers are already on the way. Landlines are also able to be entered into the system. If an administrator is unable to get to the app, they can call a number and officers will still get the alert.
Prairie Grove Police Captain Jeff O'Brien said the department has already had to respond to the school and it proved the app can be trusted.
"We did have an accidental press that no one was aware was going to happen. An accidental press was done and all of our officers were alerted and we had officers on scene in about 30 seconds. Even before our dispatchers were aware of the situation going on so it was a great training opportunity and it showed that this app does work and it is effective," he said."
Faculty and staff also have the option to download the app so they can be notified of emergencies on campus.