Los Angeles, CA – September 16, 2016 – Staples Center: Jantel Lavender (42) of the Los Angeles Sparks during a regular season game
(Photo by Scott Clarke / ESPN Images)
LiveSafe, the WNBA’s new security app, is already making an impact shortly after it launched.
Several WNBA players, including Essence Carson, Jantel Lavender and Chelsea Gray, were in Istanbul on New Year’s when tragedy struck. Thirty-nine people were killed and 69 were wounded at an Istanbul nightclub in a shooting while the Los Angeles Sparks players were in the area of the attack.
The players were able to alert to top WNBA officials that they were okay thanks to the LiveSafe app, according to the Associated Press, which reported that all players were accounted for within a few hours of the attack. The league also used the app to send players messaging letting them know to avoid the area of the shooting, according to the report.
New York Liberty player Kiah Stokes told the wire service she hadn’t been using the app before the attacks, but since then has downloaded it so that she can “always have information available about where I can go to be safe, and who I can contact if there is a dangerous situation.”
The WNBA announced its partnership with LiveSafe in December. The partnership was meant to make communication safe and easy for players when they are abroad– especially the ones playing games in Turkey, China and Russia, in the offseason.
The app allows players to communicate with the league and security teams directly. The program can also send and receive security advisories and notifications. The WNBA is the first professional league to use the app to provide player support outside of the U.S.
“The attack at Reina in Istanbul was tragic and we send our heartfelt condolences and prayers to the victims and their families,” WNBA president Lisa Borders said in a statement the day after the attack.
“The WNBA was in contact with our players in the region after the incident; we are thankful each one of them is safe and accounted for,” WNBA president Lisa Borders said in a statement.
