Utah app for reporting school shooting threats growing
(Mike Stocker | South Florida Sun-Sentinel | The Associated Press) In this Feb. 14, 2018 file photo, students hold their hands in the air as they are evacuated by police from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., after a shooter opened fire on the campus. A sheriff’s office captain told deputies to form a perimeter instead of confronting the gunman at the high school where several people were killed in a mass shooting, according to documents obtained by the Miami Herald. The newspaper reported late Thursday, March 1, that it had obtained a partial Broward Sheriff’s Office dispatch log, which showed that Capt. Jan Jordan gave the order for deputies to establish a perimeter.
| March 5, 2018, 5:47 p.m.
A Utah lawmaker says an app that allows anonymous reporting of school threats has been downloaded thousands of times in the wake of a school shooting in Florida that killed 17 people.
KUTV reports that Republican Rep. Steve Eliason of Sandy says the Safe UT app has been downloaded more than 12,0000 times in the past week.
More than two dozen reports tips have been received in the past month through the app.
Eliason says some of those aren’t credible, but if even one ends up being real, the service is extremely valuable.
Eliason says the app also lets students get in touch with a licensed contracted social worker 24 hours a day.
The app was commissioned by the University of Utah and is available for free.