Because of the sensitive nature of domestic violence and the fear of reprisals, incidents of violence often go unreported. But taking the wide use of mobile phones into account, and combining it with Frontline SMS, Anthony Papillion proposes developing a system that would allow incidents of violence to be reported quickly and anonymously.
The basic idea is to give women a quick, easy, and safe way to report and catalog abuse, and reach out for either police or crisis worker help, all without ever making a traceable phone call. Piecing together a system that consists of a laptop running FrontlineSMS, a mobile phone, and a few PHP scripts sitting on an Internet connection, I’m creating a system where women can send messages to various help authorities or just record instances of abuse for later use in court. For example:
C <A message that she wants to send to a crisis counselor>
P <A message she wants to send to a police officer>
R <A message she wants to be recorded for later use in court detailing an abusive incident>
The system is currently under development.
