UNL Police, Memorial Stadium, giving thumbs-up to SMS reporting

For years, tipsters have been an essential part of law enforcers' and event security toolboxes. Now, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Police and the NU Athletic Department are taking those tools online with a unique text messaging system for students, faculty, staff -- and Husker fans.

By employing this new text-messaging reporting system UNL Police can now be quickly summoned to the stadium or anywhere on campus with a few jabs of the thumbs via users' cellular phone text-messaging systems.

UNL will be one of the first universities to have a text-based mobile police reporting system and one of several large sports venues to be using stadium-security texting, said Owen Yardley, UNL police chief.

"The preferred method of reporting incidents is a phone call since police dispatchers need to learn as much about a situation as possible," Yardley said. "However, this new reporting method will be extremely useful in situations where there are loud venues -- such as at Memorial Stadium -- where the person calling police has a hard time hearing or being heard; or where the caller needs to report something discreetly -- perhaps without it being realized an incident is being reported to police."

To report via SMS (Short Message Service) text-messaging to UNL Police: anyone with a cellular phone and SMS capabilities can initiate an SMS text to 41513, keyword, "UNLPD." Then type in your complaint and location. Standard SMS rates will apply.

Yardley said UNL Police had been reviewing texting programs with anonymous reporting features for some time, but those programs lacked the ability for police to respond back to the mobile phone user for more information. UNL Athletic Department identified this two-way texting program and suggested its use for enhanced security in Memorial Stadium. UNL Police decided to employ the reporting technique throughout campus.

"I can see situations where this would be extremely useful," Yardley said. "We have received belated reports of safety concerns in classrooms and meetings where phone calls couldn't be made. The proliferation of texting makes this an alternative when calls cannot be made. We see this as one more method we can utilize to make sure people on this campus can easily alert us to police matters and that's just another way to maintain our safe campus."

The texting service will be put to the test in the large venue for the first time July 4 for the Larry the Cable Guy concert at Memorial Stadium. It will be promoted in the stadium via ribbon LCD screens and HuskerVision. In the fall, it will be promoted during Husker home games.

The technology is provided by In Stadium Solutions of south Florida, which has provided texting services to major sporting leagues including NFL, NBA, MLB and NASCAR, Super Bowl XLIII, the 2009 BCS Championship Game and the World Baseball Classic.