The new, free smartphone app – Flare Report – has been launched to help women and girls feel safer on Northamptonshire’s streets. Police will collate and analyse the reports made, so that problem areas can be identified, and action is taken.
Flare Report allows you to report, anonymously and quickly, any incidents or behaviour that may make you feel unsafe when you are out and about.
“We know anecdotally that many women and girls simply would not report incidents like catcalling, street harassment or even unwanted touching to Police, either because they are embarrassed, or they don’t think it will be taken seriously. I also know that this is a daily experience for many women. We can’t live in a community where women accept that harassment is just something that happens to everyone, we must call it out. Flare Report is the mechanism for doing that”
Stephen Mold
Police, Fire & Crime Commissioner
The Flare Report is not for reporting crimes in progress, but Police will check reports every day to make sure that nothing that needs an urgent response has been submitted.
The information submitted will enable Police to identify places or venues where inappropriate behaviour is making women feel unsafe. That information will be used by Police and other partners such as the local authorities to take action to reduce the risk to women and tackle perpetrators and problems.
Example VAWG data collated by Flare users in Northamptonshire
Incidents you can report
Inappropriate public behaviour that makes a person feel unsafe or causes them harm
This can include:
Staring
Catcalling/wolf-whistling
Inappropriate gestures
Inappropriate comments
Invading personal space
Verbal abuse
Drink spiking
Public stalking behaviours repeated by same individual
This can include:
Being followed/spied on
Being bought/sent unwanted gifts
Online harassment/stalking
Threatening violence or sending threatening objects
Unwanted repeated social contact
Other stalking behaviour
Public sexual harassment/violence or behaviour of a sexual nature
This can include:
Inappropriate touching without consent
Sexual comments made in public
Being sent inappropriate images
Serious sexual assault
Indecent exposure
Upskirting / Downblousing
