In life we can be forced into some tricky, unsafe, and scary situations. Walking home at night or being home alone can become potentially unsafe situations, but you might not always be able to call the police. If there is an intruder in your home, you might need to hide, and talking to a 9-1-1 operator could alert the intruder to your location.
What if you had an app that could alert someone for you? Now you can! SafeTrek will automatically send your location and name to your local police with just the touch of a button.
According to their website, SafeTrek is simple and easy to use. “If you are feeling unsafe, simply launch the app and hold your thumb down on the safe button. When you are safe, release your thumb and type in your four-digit pin number. If the situation turns for the worse and you need help, simply release your thumb and do not type in your pin – your local police will be notified of your location, name, and emergency.”
SafeTrek was created by a group of college students who wanted to create a little peace of mind for their fellow students. They came up with the idea “after constantly receiving crime report emails and hearing stories from [their] friends about incidents that were occurring on campus.” These students noticed that their campuses’ blue light phone systems were not helping keep students safe and decided to create their own app to solve the problem.
According to one of the blogs on the SafeTrek website, “If you’re unable to speak when you dial 9-1-1 [on a smartphone] or have to hang up, the best [the authorities] can do is attempt to triangulate your location. Which is why operators need to speak with you so they can extract as much information as possible while you’re on the line, they might even ask you to stay on the phone until help arrives. [They] use all of the information you provide to locate you, figure out who you are, and better inform first responders of the situation.”
So what happens when you are in an unsafe situation where you cannot stay on the line? By releasing your thumb off of the safe button in the app SafeTrek, you can quietly signal the police. The app will then provide the police with your location, name, and emergency.
In the past 30 days, SafeTrek has recorded 42,820 active button uses, 1,390 emergency responses, and 25,855 miles trekked safely.
SafeTrek is free for download on both iOS and Android devices.
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