UK Eyes ‘Walk Me Home’ Phone-Tracker to Protect Lone Women

UK Eyes ‘Walk Me Home’ Phone-Tracker to Protect Lone Women
Britain's Home Secretary Priti Patel speaks during a media briefing on the COVID-19 pandemic in Downing Street, London, Jan. 21, 2021. Matt Dunham, pool/AP Photo
The Associated Press
Updated:

LONDON—A top British government official is backing a phone company’s proposal for a new tracking service to help protect women walking alone, an idea pitched amid ongoing outrage over the slayings of two young women who were targeted near their homes in London.

The chief executive of Britain’s biggest phone company, BT, proposed the “walk me home” service in a letter to Home Secretary Priti Patel. Once a woman activated an app on her phone, the service would track her journey and send an alert to her emergency contacts if she didn’t reach her destination on time, Philip Jansen said in the letter.