The Mobile Stalking Alarm, which is designed for victims of stalking and harassment, is now available in the territory of the Brussels-Ixelles police zone. The discreet button allows the most at-risk victims to call for help without attracting the attention of their attacker.
Concretely, the victim of stalking can attach the button to their belt or another item of clothing where they can easily and discretely press it when they feel threatened. The tool then connects to the 112 application, without the person having to manually use their mobile phone.
The emergency services receive the data directly from the button, while it transmits the user's location in real-time for two hours to enable rapid police intervention.
Tweet translation: The anti-reconciliation alarm intended for victims threatened with violence by their (ex-) partners has already enabled
the Federal Police to intervene in time in more than 30 situations. Several femicides have thus been avoided.
"We monitor 10 cases of domestic violence every day. This is huge", commented the chief of staff of the Brussels-Ixelles police zone, Michel Goovaerts.
Are all victims eligible for a button? "All victims can apply, but the final decision lies with the judicial services, which carry out a risk assessment," explained Riet Verstraeten, Chief Inspector of the Domestic Violence Unit (VIF).
After a pilot project in Ghent in 2019, the scheme, which aims to offer better protection to victims of domestic violence, was extended to West and East Flanders in 2022.
The patrols in the Brussels-Capital/Ixelles area, which are the first to intervene in the field, have now been trained.
