A new safety program targeted at students aims to help those who find themselves in uncomfortable or dangerous situations catch a taxi ride.

College Cabs, a local taxi company in Pullman, initiated a soft-launch of the “Guardian Angel Program” on Aug. 16.

The idea of the Angel program came from a customer who asked if College Cabs had some sort of safety program, driver Greg Taylor said. The customer referred to cities such as Seattle and Los Angeles that have similar programs.

The Angel program would be utilized in bars and fast-food restaurants, driver Michael Kramer said. Drivers would prioritize an Angel call and take three to 10 minutes to pick the customer up, he said.

The service isn’t free but drivers prioritize safety over revenue, Taylor said.

Three codes that can be used to activate an Angel call are “Angel on the rocks,” “Angel on the rocks with lime” or “Angel on the rocks served dirty,” he said.

“Angel on the rocks” translates to calling a cab and getting a ride home, and “with lime” means a request to call the police. “Angel on the rocks served dirty” equates to getting the customer’s number and pretending a family member is calling for an emergency.

“It’s kind of answering the call and going above and beyond for the community that we want to take under our wing,” Kramer said.

Rico’s Pub is one of the many local bars with which the company is partnered. A lot of customers schedule their Tinder dates at Rico’s, manager Tawny Szumlas said, because they know the bartenders will watch out for them.

“The way the world works, the way that you meet people — you end up going out with a lot of people that you don’t really know very well,” Szumlas said. “It’s really nice to have kind of an escape pod.”

Within the last week, Taylor received an Angel call which led him to dropping off the customer at a hospital.

“That’s something we have to do sometimes,” he said. “We have to look at them and we have to make that call, ‘If I let this person out of the cab, are they going to survive the night?’ “

Ceara Maxwell, office administrator and driver, said most students would just call a cab for a friend and leave without coming along to make sure their friend is OK.

“A lot of those Angel calls come from uneducated youth not knowing how to deal with a certain situation,” Maxwell said.

The Angel program is an honor-based system and must not be used to get home quicker, Taylor said.

“We’re not one of those big players, we’re not them,” he said. “We live here, this is our home, this is our community. We’re not looking for a quick buck.”