Nobody wants another app. So the question worth answering is not whether this one is clever, but whether it changes anything on an ordinary evening walk home.
Start with what is actually measured
The Office for National Statistics surveys people in England and Wales about harassment. In the year ending March 2023, around one in ten people aged 16 and over said they had experienced harassment that caused them upset, distress or fear in the previous twelve months. Among women the figure was 13%; among men, 7%.
It is concentrated sharply by age. Roughly one in five people aged 16 to 24 reported it, against 8% of those aged 35 and over. Among women aged 16 to 24, 23% reported experiencing sexual harassment. And of the incidents that happened in person, 73% took place in a public space.
ONS notes these particular figures are not designated as National Statistics, as they came from a shortened collection period with lower response rates. We quote them because they are the best public measure available, not because they are precise.
The gap most safety tools leave open
Nearly every safety product on the market activates after something has gone wrong: an alarm, a panic button, a check-in that failed. All of that is worth having. But it all begins at the worst possible moment — when you are already frightened, probably moving, and least able to operate a phone.
The twenty minutes before that moment are where the decisions actually get made. Which way to walk. Whether to cut through the park. Whether to wait for a busier street. Most people make those calls on instinct and fragmentary memory, because nothing better is to hand.
What changes when you can see the pattern
Reported crime is not evenly spread. It concentrates in particular streets, at particular hours, in patterns that are entirely visible in the public data — and almost entirely invisible to someone who does not happen to know an area well.
That is the real gap an app can close. Not predicting the future, which nothing can do, but showing you what has repeatedly been reported on the route you are about to take, before you take it. If that moves you one street across, the app has done its job and you will never know it worked. That is the nature of prevention.
Being honest about the limits
An app cannot make a street safe. It cannot see unreported crime, and it cannot promise nothing will happen. In an emergency it is not a substitute for the police — if you are in immediate danger, call 999. What it can do is put better information in your hand beforehand, and shorten the distance between something going wrong and someone knowing about it.
The case, in one line
Being able to see where trouble has actually been reported, take a route around it, and reach the people you trust without unlocking your phone — that is a genuinely different proposition from a panic button.
Whether it earns a place on your phone is for you to judge. It is free for seven days, which is long enough to find out.