NEW YORK (AP) – It didn’t take long for the WNBA’s new security app to be put to the test.
Within a week of its debut, a deadly shooting occurred on New Year’s Eve at an Istanbul nightclub. A handful of WNBA players were in the area that night celebrating, and the LiveSafe app allowed them to get in touch with league security officials quickly as events were unfolding down the street.
Between the new app and a group text chat set up by the union months earlier for players in Turkey, everyone was able to be accounted for within a few hours of the attack.
The response time was even faster less than a week later when another attack occurred, this time near a courthouse in Izmir, where an explosives-laden vehicle was detonated.
“We knew they were OK pretty quickly,” WNBPA director of operations Terri Jackson said.