The Home Office and the National Police Chief’s Council have just launched a new tool called StreetSafe  for anyone to anonymously tell the police about public places where they have felt or feel unsafe, because of environmental issues, eg street lighting, abandoned buildings or vandalism and/or because of some behaviours, eg being followed or verbally abused.

The service is being launched as a pilot and the police are making it clear that it is not to be used for report crime or other specific incidents. This is because the tool is designed to be anonymous, so the police would not be able to respond in any case.

StreetSafe asks people who use to it provide information about  the area where they felt unsafe, the reasons they felt unsafe, why they didn’t report anything that happened to the police as well as sharing demographic details and protected characteristics. 

Anyone wishing to use the tool can find it on the Police.Uk site here.

Tackling violence against women and girls

The StreetSafe initiative is part of the Home Office strategy designed to tackle violence against women and girls (VAWG) which was launched at the end of July. The purpose of the tool is to provide additional information which will further build local intelligence and be used by police and crime commissioners to work with local authorities and other stakeholders to improve community safety and take more strategic action, including designing out crime.

It sits alongside a Home Office commitment to invest in understanding ‘what works’ to prevent violence against women and girls with the aim of identifying the highest quality, evidence-informed prevention projects.  The Home Office has pledged to provide £1.5 million in funding for intervention programmes and £1.5 million for evidence building which it hopes will result in “high quality, evidence-informed prevention projects, for example which aim to educate and inform children and young people about violence against women and girls, healthy relationships and the consequences of abuse.”

The Home Office also announced that it will launch a multi-million communications campaign with a focus on targeting perpetrators and harmful misogynistic attitudes, educating young people about healthy relationships and ensuring victims can access support.