BRIGHTON, N.Y. — Monroe Community College's Guardian app gives students, faculty and staff a direct line to public safety officers.

Users are able to assign "guardians" who can track their location and receive notifications if they don't arrive to their destination.

"You can make Monroe County Public Safety one of the individuals, you can choose a parent or friend,” said Tony Perez, the college’s chief of public safety. “If you don't arrive at your location by that time and deactivate your timer, it will reach out to those individuals.”

While Guardian doesn't hope to replace any current safety precautions, this gives students a more modern way to communicate with public safety officers.

"A lot of young people today are a lot more apt to text than to call and this is just another mechanism to utilize to communicate," said Perez.

"You never know if something is going to happen and it's nice to have that extra buckle of safety on our side," said MCC student Bianca Rossi.

The app also allows users to report suspicious activity and is available to students, faculty and staff through the app store.