A new system developed by Rutgers University students and campus police will allow anyone on the New Brunswick campus to text law enforcement if they need assistance.

Texting
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The pilot program lets students send a text alert to officers who are already on patrol on and around the campus, NJ Advance Media has reported. People visiting the campus can send messages as well as pictures with information pertaining to safety and security issues at the university. This will allow officers in the area to respond quickly.

Here's how the system works: anyone who needs to report information to police can text "RUNB" along with a message and photo into the body of a text. The message should be sent to 69050, and will go to the officers who are on patrol, according to NJ Advance Media.

The article states that police have received about 150 messages since the system was put in place, but none have been for criminal incidents or emergency situations.

The NJ Advance Media article indicated that the new text alert system came with a $14,000 price tag. Of that, $5,500 was contributed by the students themselves, along with donations from various students organizations.

Toniann Antonelli is the digital managing editor for news at NJ 101.5. Reach her at toniann.antonelli@townsquaremedia.com, or on Twitter @ToniRadio1015.

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