Five districts will be pilot-testing an app designed to boost school safety before it is rolled out to all Bergen County districts in September.

The LiveSafe app is designed to ease reporting of threatening behavior and cyberbullying, help identify student in need of counseling, and boost communications between law enforcement and teachers.

The Bergen County Prosecutor's Office signed a $150,000 three-year contract with the developers of the app in April, and is working with Dumont, Palisades Park, Park Ridge, Teaneck and Tenafly to pilot its use during the summer.

Martin Delaney, senior assistant prosecutor, said the LiveSafe app enables administrators, parents, and, especially, students to send information anonymously about various risk and danger.

"It's a tip-reporting app, but it's also a means of two-way communication," Delaney said. "In other words, we can not only receive the tips, we can flow the information back out."

The tips will be monitored by the Prosecutor's Office, and information will also be sent out from the office.

Joseph Cirillo, superintendent in Palisades Park, said the phone app will be used first by students at the junior/senior high school before it is used districtwide.

“Obviously, this is an opportunity to allow the children to be a voice,” Cirillo said. He said school board approval and parental consent will be needed before the pilot can begin.

Delaney offered a scenario of law enforcement who arrive on the scene of a dangerous incident at a school to show how the app will be helpful.

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“We are trying to get information into the building, to people who are locked down, and that becomes very difficult because every school uses a different means of communicating directly to teachers, if they have one in the first place,” Delaney said. “This [app] gives us the ability to push emergency information to people via the app who are already in the school.”

He said the five school districts agreed to test the app after seeing a presentation by LiveSafe at a school security seminar hosted by the Prosecutor's Office in April; they are supposed to start the pilot June 10 to iron out technical issues and get people used to using it.

Dumont Superintendent of Schools Emanuele Triggiano, however, said the app will not be implemented until Police Chief Michael Conner's concerns about anonymity and the monitoring and sharing of information are addressed.

“This looks like a very good initiative. Hopefully, they are going to monitor this on a 24/7 basis,” Triggiano said. “The information is not limited to just threats or incidents of violence.”

Robert Gamper, Park Ridge superintendent, said the district was hoping to start the pilot with a few students and parents, and expand to all families in Grades 9-12 at the start of the school year.

The plan is for the app to be used in districts countywide by September, Delaney said.

Email: kaulessar@northjersey.com