Aggie Guardian is a mobile app, by Rave Guardian, for personal safety that is available to anyone with a "ucdavis.edu" email address. The app is free and using it is optional.
Features include:
Virtual safety escort — When you're moving about, indicate your estimated time of arrival at your destination. If you don't switch off the timer before it counts down, the service will alert a guardian you've chosen in advance — a friend, family member or the UC Davis Police Department.
911 calls — Use an icon to quickly place an emergency call to the UC Davis Police Department or the nearest 911 service.
Eyewitness reports — Send text tips — and even photos — if you see something suspicious.
Aggie Guardian profile — Enter your physical description, emergency medical information and emergency contacts so, when you need help, emergency services can find and assist you more easily.
Safety is a top priority at UC Davis, and the university is offering Aggie Guardian as an additional personal safety tool for members of the campus community. It adds to other services such as Safe Rides, Tipsy Taxi, UC Davis WarnMe and Aggie Alerts, and self-defense instruction offered through the UC Davis Police Department and the Department of Physical Education.
Similar to the UC Davis Warn Me system, the City of Davis Police uses Nixle to alert and inform citizens. To learn more or sign up, please visit: https://nixle.com/city-of-davis-police/. Visit the City of Davis Police Department webpage here: http://frompolice.cityofdavis.org/
How to install the Aggie Guardian app on your mobile device
1) Register
From your mobile phone, download RAVE Guardian for free from the App Store for iPhones or Google Play for Androids and register using your “ucdavis.edu” email account, after registering the app with appear as Aggie Guardian. Choose a PIN number and confirm registration of your mobile phone and any other numbers you choose to register.
2) Set up your Aggie Guardian profile (optional)
To help the UC Davis Police Department and other 911 services find and assist you in an emergency, you can opt to add additional information to your Aggie Guardian profile.
When you call 911 from your registered phone, or fail to deactivate the Guardian safety timer before it runs down, critical information can be provided instantaneously to 911 dispatchers. Your profile can include as little or as much information as you’d like:
emergency medical information, such as allergies and disabilities;
work and home addresses and phone numbers;
driver's license and vehicle information;
physical description and a photo; and
emergency contacts and even your pet(s).
Your profile is displayed to safety dispatchers only if and when you place a 911 call from a phone registered with your profile and the 911 center receiving your call participates in the Aggie Guardian program. The UC Davis Police Department uses Aggie Guardian, but the city of Davis does not.
You can learn more and create your Aggie Guardian profile through your smartphone or computer’s Web browser.
3) Choose your guardians
In the Aggie Guardian app, you can choose and pre-load multiple guardians of your choice — such as the UC Davis Police Department, friends, family members and roommates. You must select just one for each trip or use of the timer. The app asks the selected guardian, other than the police department, to confirm his or her agreement to be your guardian for that trip. Guardians other than the UC Davis Police Department must download the Aggie Guardian app. If you have location services turned on, a guardian, other than the police department, can view your location while the timer is activated.
Informational screen after sign-up
How to use the virtual safety escort
Choose the Safety Timer icon and enter your PIN.
Fill out the form with your estimated trip time and the guardian for this particular trip. As an option, indicate your Status, such as your location, destination and path of travel. You can update your status along the way.
Choose Activate to begin the timer. The display incudes the timer, your location on a map, the guardian you've selected for this particular trip and a log of any status reports.
When you arrive safely at your destination, choose Deactivate to turn off the timer.
The virtual safety escort should be used only in and around the university.
What happens when your safety timer alerts your guardian
You'll receive a text alerting you that your timer is about ready to count down. If you don't deactivate the timer, your guardian will be alerted that your timer went off.
If the UC Davis Police Department is your guardian for that trip, Aggie Guardian will notify dispatch. The police department will follow protocols to determine if you are OK or need assistance. You may get a phone call or text message. If you can't be contacted, an officer may be dispatched to your last known location to try to find you. To help you, the police department will have access to your Aggie Guardian profile.
If someone else is your guardian, that person will be alerted and may try to call, text or locate you. The guardian could also choose to notify the UC Davis Police Department or other emergency services.
How to call 911 through the app
You can use an emergency icon to quickly place a 911 call. The next screen will ask you to indicate whether you want to call the UC Davis Police Department or the nearest emergency service. You'll be asked to confirm that you really do want to make the 911 call.
How to send a tip
The emergency icon also leads you to an option to text a tip to the UC Davis Police Department. You can select from a menu of incidents from abuse/assault to suspicious activity to fill in your subject line. You can also include a photo of the incident.
Location and privacy information
Location accuracy
There are certain factors that can affect the accuracy of the GPS locator, if you choose to use that. These include, but are not limited to, whether or not you are calling from inside a building or a "dead spot"; the strength of your cell signal (proximity of cell towers and satellites); and the type and quality of your phone, carrier and signal.
Privacy
We understand your privacy is important to you, and it's important to us, too.
You decide whether to download Aggie Guardian as well as how and when to use it.
You control how much information you share as part of the registration process and through any updates.
You choose who acts as your guardian for the virtual safety escort — whether that is a friend, family member, roommate or the UC Davis Police Department.
You keep your Aggie Guardian profile to yourself. Guardians don't see it. The UC Davis Police Department or other 911 dispatchers can't see it unless you call for emergency assistance. And they have access to it only until your case, meaning your emergency call, is handled and closed.
You move about privately. You choose whether to activate location services on your phone. If you have location services turned on, a guardian can see your location. But unless you need help, no information about your travel plans or location is shared with the UC Davis Police Department, even if it is your designated guardian for the trip.
The privacy policy is on a drop-down menu in the Aggie Guardian app.
Information resources
Aggie Guardian
UC Davis Police Department
Safety and Security tips
Related resources
Campus Safety and Managing Emergencies
Center for Advocacy Resources and Education (CARE)
Emergency Communication, a UC Davis brochure
Aggie Guardian FAQ
Contact the Police Department
Davis Campus
Emergency
911 or 530-752-1230
24-Hour Non-Emergency
530-752-1727
Sacramento Campus
Emergency
911 or 916-734-2555
24-Hour Non-Emergency
916-734-2555
General Inquiries
Non-Emergency only
police.web@ucdavis.edu
