A version of 999 that's accessible to women before imminent danger

[Gruffling]

Why does this not exist? We have the technology.

Just pondering that by the time many women are certain they are in immediate danger, it's too late to call 999.

Or maybe we need to financially invest in 999 as a society, so that it feels more accessible for women (and children) to call without feeling like we are wasting time.

We need to let people no that emergency services does not mean immediate. Its also almost impossible to call 999 yourself if you are fighting for your life. It is better to call before you are in immediate danger.

I'm thinking of something like a women's security hotline we can call when just need to know that someone is listening in on what is happening and the operator can escalate to 999 if an attack happens.

How would it work, though? At what point do you need help from the emergency services to extricate yourself from a dodgy situation before it turns bad?

Do you mean for example if you're walking home late at night a number you could call to alert someone that you're walking home late, before e.g. you find yourself in a dark underpass where someone attacks you leaving you unable to call 999 in the moment?

Or in a case of a woman with a violent husband, a number she'd call to alert someone he's on his way home from work or where-ever before he actually gets home where he may attack her leaving her unable to make a safe call to 999?

In the former, I've always called a friend or shared my location in Ubers etc.

Services like the example second example to support women in danger of DV exist, they're just chronically and intentionally underfunded. The safety of women and girls is not a priority for the government unless there are potential votes in it which is why many tories have no issue explaining what a woman is, but not how said woman can afford to work and put her kids in childcare.

I guess the walking home at night example is what I'm thinking about. There was a recent case in the news of a woman being followed, attacked and murdered on her way home in a horrible way. There was CCTV of her pausing and looking afraid before she was attacked.

So often in these cases there is victim blaming of women ...but never of the system that makes us more afraid of wasting police time than of being attacked.

I do sometimes call my husband when walking home. But I'm not certain he will pick up straight away, so if I feel a gut feeling of danger I'm more likely to grip my keys and be on high alert, ready to fight/ run.

I do sometimes call my husband when walking home. But I'm not certain he will pick up straight away, so if I feel a gut feeling of danger I'm more likely to grip my keys and be on high alert, ready to fight/ run.

With this, you're better off not using your phone in case you get robbed but sending him your location / texting him prior. Because even if he does pick up there's nothing he could reasonably do in the moment to help you should the worst befall you. Being 'ready' and on high alert is always what I've done but then it goes back to why should I have to remain on high alert just because I'm a woman. The police, however, would probably make you feel like you wasted their time should you be attacked or not; I wouldn't be surprised if their line of questioning centred on why you were walking around past midnight tbh.

You do realise statistically a woman is more at risk at home with a man she knows that walking alone at night

I'm aware of this but I don't understand the point you are making.

Are you implying that women should not be afraid of male violence from men they do not live with because of this statistic?

The most practical solution would maybe be having a setup where you flag your concern and it's escalated if you don't check back in within a certain time period.

To a certain extent yes.

Resources should be focused where factually there is the biggest risk.

I also don't believe in creating an atmosphere of fear in the next generation of females. Factually you should feel safe walking home in the dark, less so than embarking on a relationship, and yet we don't genuinely say to our daughters think twice before embarking on a relationship just in case. However factually if we want to Keep our DDs safe this is exactly what we should be saying.

Yet women are not safe walking alone in the dark, so your point still eludes me.

It's like ploughing resources and fearmongers into a metaphoric bogeyman whilst ignoring the the far bigger threat. Your both letting down those women who do need you and wasting resources on those that don't.

But if you don't get it you don't get it.

in one study from 2007, 90% of women were murdered by someone they knew, and 10% of murdered women were killed by a stranger.

However, they are two different risks. The actual risk you need to calculate is your ability to arrive home safely, and being murdered is not the only risk of being outdoors among strangers.

But at what point do you want the emergency services to intervene? A men walking 100m behind you isn't a crime, they can't provide an escort service for nervous women, however a system that alerts them that a serious crime is progress giving the exact location and that person cannot talk should be possible and I think already exists

After what happened to Sarah Everard I was thinking about any kind of ways to improve women's safety.

I was thinking - what about an app like Google maps where women who live in an area can mark certain paths or routes as red for dangerous in certain hours, amber, green etc. Where I live I know all the dangerous places to never go, but a stranger would have no idea.

So if a woman was visiting from out of town like to a city, or the seaside etc they would be able to look at their live locations and get to their destination by foot avoiding unsafe areas.

It could basically work anywhere in the world and users would be the ones updating the locations regularly.

Obviously there would be flaws, but I would love something like that when I'm travelling around on my own.

(Also, I'm not saying this could have saved Sarah, it just was what had made me realise how unsafe our streets are)

You do realise statistically a woman is more at risk at home with a man she knows that walking alone at night

How does this help a woman walking alone at night?

It's about as helpful as stating that statistically I'm more likely to be Chinese. That may be so, but I'm not Chinese, so what do you expect me to do with this information?

Factually you should feel safe walking home in the dark

You can't state this as a fact about e.g. me because you don't know anything about me or the area I live in.

however a system that alerts them that a serious crime is progress giving the exact location and that person cannot talk should be possible and I think already exists

It doesn't exist unfortunately. The technology available to the emergency services is really poor compared to the info available via location apps