A new app showing women where recent sex attacks have taken place is to be launched in Scotland cities next year.
Former Dundee University student Jillian Kowalchuk founded Safe & The City, a navigation app which flags city black spots in a bid to help women plan their journeys home.
The app will allow users to log instances of harrassment and sexual assault, warning others about potential dangers in their surrounding area.
With tens of thousands of students attending universities and colleges in Glasgow and Edinburgh, Safe & The City aims to keep women safer in a potentially unfamiliar city.
The app - which launched in London this year - flags up incidents across the city
Ms Kowalchuk got the inspiration for the app after moving to London, when Google Maps took her on a shortcut through a dodgy alleyway.
She said: “Safe & The City came from a series of experiences. Being new to London, I’d moved from Canada and was reliant on a lot of navigation apps and trusted them.
“I was using Google Maps meeting a friend in a restaurant in London and took me to this alleyway where two men were on a smoking break. They thought it would be quite funny to rile me up and got very aggressive in what they were saying. Although they didn’t end up acting on those threats, someone else would walk into that situation.
“I looked back thinking ‘how could that be prevented?’ for the dozens of people walking from that train station that night.”
Safe & The City founder and former Dundee University student Jillian Kowalchuk
Safe & The City, which currently only operates in London, intends to launch in Edinburgh and Glasgow by next summer.
The app currently has more than 5,000 users in the English capital and works with the Metropolitan Police to share data anonymously.
As well as instances of sexual harrassment and assault, users can also flag safety concerns such as badly lit areas.
Ms Kowalchuk added: “We want to start in the two main cities in Scotland; Edinburgh, because it is such a tourist destination, and Glasgow, because parts of the city have been viewed as likely to experience crime.
“Although this is partly about flagging areas which may be dangerous for women, as well as showing that some areas are safer than you think and debunking some of those stereotypes."
Read more: Police investigating after teen sexually assaulted in Glasgow lane
Rape Crisis Scotland says the app is "well intentioned" but stressed that sexual violence is not confined to location.
Sandy Brindley, the chief executive of Rape Crisis Scotland, said: “These type of apps are well intentioned, and may be helpful for some but the reality is the sexual violence is not confined to certain areas. It can happen anywhere, most commonly in someone’s home, or in the home of the attacker.”
News about the app comes as police in Glasgow launch special safety zones to help revellers get home over the festive period.
Six areas in the city will be staffed each weekend to help party-goers get home safely.
Chief Inspector Scott Tees, Police Scotland Safer Communities, said: “We advise people to plan their journey. Tell someone when and where you’re going and when to expect you to get there. If you decide to change your plans then let someone know. Carry a mobile phone and make sure it’s charged.
“If you are in an unfamiliar area, be aware of your surroundings and look confident about where you are going. Don’t take short-cuts through dark alleyways, parks or waste ground”.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel