After the murder of Sarah Everard, who was wrongly arrested for a breach of Covid-19 guidelines as she walked home from a friend’s house in South London on the 3rd of March 2021. Awareness for the safety of lone women has taken Britain by storm as protesters and women around the Uk fight for change to make the Uk safer for women by themselves as enough is enough of female brutality.
A message will be sent to the user at the time they were predicted to be at their destination. No response will issue calls to emergency contacts or an 888-emergency line which may even trigger a blue light or police response.
Just before setting out on the journey, users would have to log their starting location and then where their destination will be, by starting the app or call or texting 888. This would give an estimate of how the expected journey time will take and start the GPs tracking.
A message will be sent to the user at the time they were predicted to be at their destination. No response will issue calls to emergency contacts or an 888-emergency line which may even trigger a blue light or police response.
This service has received a lot of backing from the government, notably from Priti Patel as it was reported in the Daily Mail that she was very supportive of the idea.
However, many concerns have been mentioned about this new scheme and there have been some brutal backlash to the idea of this phone service safety system.
This app includes similar features to the new BT 888 phone service safety system like the GPs tracker and uses maps to find the quickest route. Nick Gazzard father of Hollie Gazzard has made it clear that their free app has been “tried and tested” and has shown that it has all the functions which the BT 888 app has suggested they will be including.
The BT software has also been estimated to cost about £50 million, and if there are already services like this out there, it can be argued that is just a waste of resources.
Why the backlash? Why would anyone critique this potentially life-saving technology? Many are annoyed that this ‘innovative scheme’ is not innovative at all. This is because there are already handfuls of personal safety apps out there that do the same service. For example, Hollie Guard is a free mobile app that has been out for about six years and was created by the Hollie Gazzard trust, which was set up in memory of the 20-year-old woman Hollie who was murdered by her ex-boyfriend late back in 2014.
Although the app is mainly targeted towards women and girls the app is welcoming for anyone who feels vulnerable or unsafe while being by themselves. However, many women are upset that another app has been made to allow women to be ‘safe’ rather than making stricter laws on harassment and longer sentences for abusers and murderers. And finding better ways to deter crime against women.
Throughout the backlash, there are still many positives to this new BT 888 phone service safety system and ultimately , it is a positive that big companies such as BT are trying to put measures in place to help protect women from violence.
