Our personal safety device’s primary goal is to provide security for young women like ourselves. When reaching out to Councilwoman Nury Martinez’s Deputy Chief of Staff, Alexis Wesson, for insight on the human trafficking situation in our community, we learned that in the past fiscal year the Human Trafficking Task Force made 86 arrests for pimps, “a man who controls prostitutes”, Oxford Dictionary, 559 arrests for Johns, men who solicit and pay for sex, 4,111 traffic citations, 234 loitering tickets, and rescued 8 juveniles and 3 adult women. Through this invention, our goal is to make women in our community feel safer and give them the freedom to be independent in their community. Our device helps us achieve this goal by allowing a woman to share her last known location with the authorities and designated contacts in the event of an emergency. With our device, women would feel safer knowing that if they felt unsafe or were being attacked, they could trigger an alert to provide their last known location to local law enforcement and emergency contacts. We have all heard or read stories in the media about violence and harassment against women; we know these events happen quickly and way too often. This made us realize that this accessory had to be a quick response for situations such as rape, attempted kidnapping, or sexual harassment. Our team is on a mission to create a subtle accessory that can:
- GPS/Locator, with efficient locators (preferably one that picks up coordinates by satellites) capable of locating the victim in danger without having to depend on WiFi or cell towers. Abductions can happen anywhere, anytime; traffickers are always on the move which makes finding victims harder to find. Therefore with a GPS/Locator authorities will be better able to detect the current location of the victim. We plan to use locators such as those used in Fitbit.
- An app, containing emergency contacts along with other setups such as a router that can alert the user when they are close to a danger zone and help them change their course. This app is included so that people with or without a phone can use our device. For example, those who have a phone can enter information about danger zones in order to alert other users about unsafe zones. This helps individuals with or without a phone because they are still able to wear the security device and receive a notification when they are approaching a danger zone.
- Alert emergency contacts, this can be done with the help of the app, (pre-determined by the owner of the device) preferably with the ability to include alerts to local law enforcement if the owner chooses to include them in the list of contacts. The designated contacts would receive the name, time of activation, and coordinates of the victim. This will quickly alert the designated contacts and who will then ensure the user gets the help they need.
- Have a subtle and simple design that appears to be of little value, yet is appealing to the target audience. The design will also be durable in order to resist damage in a possible attack. Having a simple but durable design will increase the use of the product, because it will last longer and be resistant enough to withstand an attack.
- Record information during the incident that allows the victim to present evidence to the authorities if she chooses to file charges against the predator. Solid evidence is very important when seeking to prosecute an offender in court.
- An efficient and easy way of charging and powering the accessory that ensures it charges quickly and remains charged for a long period of time.