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Fewer calls came to the Safe + Sound app in calendar year 2025 than in 2024.Safe and Sound is a free, statewide digital tool that allows people to report school safety tips anonymously.Safe + Sound tips in 2025 numbered 376. That compares to 426 the previous year.But the number of school districts using the app increased, says Special Agent in Charge Kyle Bassett with the Governor’s School Safety Bureau. The bureau is a part of the Iowa Department of Public Safety. There are 168 of 325 school districts using the app.”You can get in there, whether it’s parents, teachers, students, administrators, people in the community report a threat,” says Bassett, “and there will be a team of dispatchers, along with myself and another analyst who will see the threat and will respond 24/7.”KCCI Investigates got a comparison of the two full years the app has been used.One of the key drivers for the 432 tips in 2024 was a huge number of school threats in September. There were 101 tips that month.The summer month numbers dwindle to a handful or none. Then the tips increase in the fall when school resumes.The types of reports and tips from 2025 break down in the following ways:”Other” safety issues: 138Assault or harm to others: 82Reports of guns, knives or explosives: 43Drug trafficking: 31Suicide threats: 23Child abuse: 19Planned school attack: 15Sexual assault/rape: 13Terrorism: 5Bodily injury/emergency: 5Bullying/cyberbullying: 2″It seems like there has been an increase in the use of AI and swatting, not only in Iowa, but nationwide,” says Bassett.Swatting calls in fall 2025 targeted some districts and universities. The calls were hoaxes.”One of the goals of swatting is to take up resources of law enforcement, schools dispatchers,” says Bassett, “and we have to treat every one of those calls as if it’s credible until we know different.”Bassett says the next priority for the bureau: establishing behavioral threat assessment teams.This comes out of passage of Senate File 583.”It allows the communication of school professionals, counselors, law enforcement to communicate about kids in school districts that might need some help,” he says. “We’re working on putting together an Iowa-based model, to provide to the entire state that school districts can use free of charge.”Reports are investigated locally, so the Governor’s School Safety Bureau doesn’t track arrests or interventions. NAVIGATE: Home | Weather | Local News | National | Sports | Newscasts on demand |
Fewer calls came to the Safe + Sound app in calendar year 2025 than in 2024.
Safe and Sound is a free, statewide digital tool that allows people to report school safety tips anonymously.
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Safe + Sound tips in 2025 numbered 376. That compares to 426 the previous year.
But the number of school districts using the app increased, says Special Agent in Charge Kyle Bassett with the Governor’s School Safety Bureau. The bureau is a part of the Iowa Department of Public Safety.
There are 168 of 325 school districts using the app.
“You can get in there, whether it’s parents, teachers, students, administrators, people in the community report a threat,” says Bassett, “and there will be a team of dispatchers, along with myself and another analyst who will see the threat and will respond 24/7.”
KCCI Investigates got a comparison of the two full years the app has been used.
One of the key drivers for the 432 tips in 2024 was a huge number of school threats in September. There were 101 tips that month.
The summer month numbers dwindle to a handful or none. Then the tips increase in the fall when school resumes.
The types of reports and tips from 2025 break down in the following ways:
- “Other” safety issues: 138
- Assault or harm to others: 82
- Reports of guns, knives or explosives: 43
- Drug trafficking: 31
- Suicide threats: 23
- Child abuse: 19
- Planned school attack: 15
- Sexual assault/rape: 13
- Terrorism: 5
- Bodily injury/emergency: 5
- Bullying/cyberbullying: 2
“It seems like there has been an increase in the use of AI and swatting, not only in Iowa, but nationwide,” says Bassett.
Swatting calls in fall 2025 targeted some districts and universities. The calls were hoaxes.
“One of the goals of swatting is to take up resources of law enforcement, schools dispatchers,” says Bassett, “and we have to treat every one of those calls as if it’s credible until we know different.”
Bassett says the next priority for the bureau: establishing behavioral threat assessment teams.
This comes out of passage of Senate File 583.
“It allows the communication of school professionals, counselors, law enforcement to communicate about kids in school districts that might need some help,” he says. “We’re working on putting together an Iowa-based model, to provide to the entire state that school districts can use free of charge.”
Reports are investigated locally, so the Governor’s School Safety Bureau doesn’t track arrests or interventions.
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