Security app Go Vigilant launches

Do you want to receive real-time alerts for local, national and international events?

As the saying goes, “There’s an app for that.”

Go Vigilant bills itself as an “all-in-one personal safety platform built by experts from the front lines of national security, law enforcement, and emergency response,” with the goal of keeping users “prepared, informed and protected no matter where you are in the world.”

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To do this, the application is divided into five areas:

• Academy, which aims to help users master critical safety skills and includes professional-level courses in things like first aid and active shooter response

• Intel, providing real-time safety alerts and intelligence updates

• Secure communications, featuring end-to-end encrypted messaging and secure information sharing with teammates and family, and the ability to send SOS messages and set rally points in emergencies

• Safety tracking, allowing users to monitor real-time threat alerts and live location tracking

• AI Travel Companion, letting users virtually chat to check if an area is safe or request a full travel briefing Go Vigilant co-creator and CEO Ellie Pikula said she and co-creator Christopher Fox were working for the State Department when they discussed the idea of the app.

Pikula grew up in Pittsburgh and attended the University of Pittsburgh before moving to Hoboken, New Jersey, with her husband. She worked at the State Department for about four years before co-founding Go Vigilant.

“We were working a missing person case for someone that had been captured abroad and we got frustrated,” she recounted. “So much red tape existed in the government and security space. We thought we could design something that has less red tape and would keep people safe.”

The app — available in both the Apple and Google Play stores — was created with input from many different pilot partners, including the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh. The partners provided feedback and suggested new features.

Pikula said she already had a connection to Federation’s Community Security Director Shawn Brokos through her time at the State Dept. Both Pittsburgh and the Federation, she said, immediately came to mind when were seeking partners.

“I thought she [Brokos] would be a great fit. She is so smart when it comes to safety and protection and what the community needs,” Pikula said. “At that point, tensions were really high and there was a heightened need for security within the Jewish community.”

Pittsburgh, she said, seemed like the perfect place to find out if Go Vigilant really added value to community members.

Eric Kroll, Federation’s deputy security director, said Go Vigilant was in the beta testing stage of the app when he began using it.

He suggested some things that the Pittsburgh team would like to have added, he said, and overall, he’s found the app to be very useful.

“Especially if you’re traveling, even internationally. It starts giving updates of incidents and emergencies going on around you. It gives you situational awareness,” he said.

Kroll also liked the ability to contact someone through the app and “basically say, ‘I’m in distress.’”

Go Vigilant was made for those with a need for security information, including individuals and families, Pikula said. The goal is to provide the right amount of verified information to keep the user updated without becoming overwhelming.

Some of the app’s competitors rely on user-generated alerts, which leads to flooded feeds that often feature misinformation, she said.

“We try to focus on a wider array of things that aren’t just violent crime-specific.”

When an emergency occurs, Go Vigilant can help tamp down users’ fears, Pikula said, because they receive verified information, including news articles.

Understanding what information people need is an important part of the app, which also includes things like transportation disruptions and power outages, she added.

A quick look at the feed when this story was being written included a tornado warning in Austin, Texas, a report from a local news source about a shooting, protests in India, a power outage in Ohio and even a report that authorities in Germany were disposing of a World War II-era bomb.

Earlier that morning there was information about a car accident that closed the Parkway East during morning rush hour.

Users also can filter the information seen, selecting the severity and radius from their home.

“We really want to provide a holistic intelligence feed of things happening,” Pikula said. PJC

David Rullo can be reached at drullo@pittsburghjewishchronicle.org.