Campus Currents

Helping Bad News Travel Fast A UNH Law alum invents a crime-reporting app. By Barbara Walsh '81

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Perry Smith/UNH Photographic Services

Eman Pahlevani '12JD calls it a crime-fighting, and possibly life-saving, game changer.

With a push of a button on a mobile phone or tablet, citizens can send police the location of a crime or shooting in progress, as well as video, audio and text messages. Rather than dial 911, they can report the information anonymously through LiveSafe, Pahlevani's newly created smartphone application.

"The 911 call system is outdated," says Pahlevani. "Kids are growing up with texting, YouTube and Facebook, and if you want them to help out and report crime, we've got to speak their language."

Pahlevani, his brother and a friend launched an earlier version of LiveSafe last February. Called CrimePush, the free application drew stories in Forbes magazine and on Fox, CNN, ABC and CBS, and police departments around the country requested information. "The media picked up on it and it went out of control," Pahlevani says: More than 150,000 people have downloaded the application.

Perry Smith/UNH Photographic Services

The rapid and global interest spurred the UNH School of Law graduate and his colleagues to revamp and improve their product. "We've just brought on a seasoned executive team and rebranded from CrimePush to LiveSafe," Pahlevani says. "In early spring, we're rolling out a new app that is light years ahead."

Beyond crime reporting, "there are so many different ways to use this technology," he notes, such as an "arrived safely" check-in system for families and animal abuse reporting.

The idea for the app stemmed from Pahlevani's frustration after his older brother, Shyan, was robbed at gunpoint in Washington, D.C. It was his third time as a crime victim. "After he was robbed," Pahlevnai says, "we decided let's do something to report and fight crime instead of having people ignore it."