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SALT LAKE CITY — As someone who takes a 20-minute walk home alone almost daily and watches too many crime shows, getting nervous while traveling alone is a common occurrence for me.
According to the Utah Department of Health, 1 in 3 Utah women will experience some form of sexual assault in their lifetime; a number that is higher than the national average. The FBI reported that 43.2 percent of robberies in 2010 took place on the street or highway and 46.8 percent of Utahns were robbed that year.
Because I don’t want to spend my walks constantly worrying about my safety, having safety apps on my phone is something that has brought me a lot of peace, especially since not every dangerous situation can be avoided. Before writing this article, I downloaded and used four safety apps to give a first-hand account of how they work.
Companion
- Price: Free
- Available on iOS and Android
The app also includes two buttons at the bottom of the map: one that automatically calls 911 and the other that notifies your friends if you feel nervous.
The app also tracks movement, so it can notify your contacts if you suddenly start running. Because of this, some users have said they’re not able to use the app while running on trails because it thinks they’re running from danger and notifies their friends.
Many users said they loved the app, but that it crashed frequently. So far, I haven’t run into that problem.
On Watch On Campus
- Price: 30-day free trial, then 99 cents per month or $9.99 per year
- Available on both iOS and Android
Related Stories:
4 tools to protect yourself from assault
An oft-quoted 1998 study by the National Institute of Justice and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that one in every six women and one in 33 men in the United States has at one time or another been the victim of rape or attempted rape.The app also gives you the option of setting up a timer with an alarm system. For example, if you’re going home and think you’ll be there in about a half hour, you can set a timer for that long. When the timer is up, an alarm goes off. If you do not put in a code within 15 seconds, it will notify your friends you need help and give them your GPS location.
Two other features allow you to contact your selected friends that you feel uncomfortable, which the app says is useful for an awkward date, or to notify contacts that you have arrived home safely.
I haven’t used all these features, but I programmed the campus police number and have used the timer, both of which have given me more peace of mind and helped me enjoy my walks home more often.
Despite what "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit" may lead you to believe, most sexual assault survivors know their attacker. The Utah Department of Health reports that 80 to 90 percent of sexual assault victims personally knew their attacker. Victims reported being raped by a family member, intimate partner, babysitter, neighbor or co-worker.
Because of this, tracking your GPS may not always be helpful when you are in need of help. The two apps I thought were particularly useful if in a dangerous situation with someone you know in a familiar place were the following:
SafeTrek
- Cost: First month free, then $2.99 a month.
- Available on iOS and Android
The app is similar to a home security system: the alarm goes off, the company is notified and they immediately notify the police of your location. SafeTrek received high reviews and many users said it was worth the price.
I recently used this while walking home. Once I was in a place I felt safe, I released the button, put in my code and SafeTrek sent me a nice little text saying that they were glad I was safe, which in turn brought a smile to my face.
SafeTrek is my personal preference because I know the police are contacted right away as opposed to a few of my contacts; that way it won't send my mom into an instant panic. She can panic when I tell her about it later.
Send Help
- Price: Free
- Available on iOS. A similar app is available on Android
Send Help notifies selected contacts of your choosing that you are in danger. It sends a personalized message that you type ahead of time and sends your GPS coordinates to them.
You only need to push the button as opposed to holding down the button.
If you want, you can also set it up so that it posts to your social media. I'm sure that'd cause some attention to your page.
The one downfall I found with using this app is that if your parents, roommates, or friends are like mine, they don’t check their phone frequently and wouldn’t see the message until two hours after the incident. But, at least they would have known where it had taken place.
Send Help and SafeTrek are mainly helpful if you’re walking through a parking lot or parking garage. While apps that track your route are helpful, I haven’t found an effective way to put in my route from my apartment door to my car in the parking garage, which is the place I most often feel unsafe walking through. These two apps were much faster and more useful for situations like that.
Other safety apps I researched but did not personally use:
- Price: Free
- Available on iOS and Android
Drunk Mode also has a “breadcrumbs” feature which keeps track of where you go that night so, if you don’t remember it the next day, you’re able to retrace your steps.
This app had the most reviews compared to the other safety apps I researched. Most users said the app crashed frequently and the blocked contacts feature didn't work and led them to drunk dialing exes. Some users said the breadcrumbs feature was very useful, though.
bSafe
- Price: Free
- Available on iOS and Android
The difference is it has the ability to set up your own miniature social network of friends and family members who you can share your location with. It also has a "fake call" option that could be helpful if you’re ever stuck in a conversation you want to get out of. However, bSafe does not have a button to automatically call 911 or campus police.
Reviewers have praised the app and said it has worked very well for them. Others have reported it crashing on them multiple times.
Circle of 6
- Price: Free
- Available on iOS and Android
The PIN asks the friends in the circle to come pick you up, the phone sends a message asking them to call you and get you out of a situation, and the chat bubble says that you need to talk. The website states that Circle of 6 was designed to notify people discreetly so that the third party doesn’t know it’s a safety app and it doesn’t raise questions.
The unique thing about Circle of 6 is it also has a feature that can connect you to nationwide hotlines in both English and Spanish if needed.
Circle of 6 also has a version specifically for university students, who the app was originally designed for.
Though these apps cannot prevent people from trying to take advantage of you, they can provide you extra help by notifying others of your situation immediately.
What safety apps do you use? Let us know in the comments.
Camilla Stimpson is a news writing intern for KSL.com and enjoys reporting on politics, crimes and her own awkward moments on 50shadesofawkward.com. When not writing, she can be found watching "30 Rock" or "Law & Order," napping, planning trips she can't afford and Googling dogs she can't have.
