But now, there’s a device, called the PanicButton, that helps women get help quickly and provides evidence about what actually happened in the incident. It is being tested in Vitoria, a town with the highest rate of domestic violence in Brazil. Women in abusive relationships are given the PanicButton when they obtain a court-issued restraining order against their abuser.
Women wear the device on an elastic band around their waist. If they are threatened by their abuser, they can activate the button by pressing on it for 3 seconds. It transmits a distress call to a special unit of the Municipal Guard. It has a GPS unit embedded in it so the mapped location of the event is transmitted to the closest police who respond, often within minutes. Finally, there is also a recorder in the unit so that the conversation – threats and all – are heard by the police as they rush to the scene. The recording is transmitted and stored in a police database to be retrieved later to be used as evidence against the aggressor – thus mitigating the type of “he said, she said” situation that occurred in the Zimmerman case.
This device, which cost about $40, has led to arrests and is serving as a deterrent to further abuse. My only question is how fast can we make this available to abused women everywhere?
(app for victims of domestic violence / shutterstock)
