A woman is campaigning to turn London’s unused telephone boxes into ‘digital safety pods.’
Farrah Mcnutt, 27, hopes to make the city's streets safer by giving people a secure space to escape to in a moment of danger.
The crime prevention worker hopes to transform old telephone boxes – such as those currently for sale from BT – into pods with built-in crime prevention tools.
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Her idea is that if danger strikes, a person can open the pod’s door which will trigger an immediate call to 999.
When the box shuts, they will be automatically locked in the box until the police arrive. The windows will be reinforced so the victim can see out, but the suspect will not be able to see in.
CCTV installed in the box will act as the “eyes on the ground” and record footage that could be used as evidence later on.
The 27-year-old hopes that eventually the boxes could be made from confiscated or handed in weapons.
Farrah’s journey to prevent crime started in 2014, when she set up an online crime prevention platform aged 20.
She still runs Catch a Thief UK, a website that works with retailers, businesses and police forces to expose crimes.
Now, she wants people susceptible to stalking, gang violence and knife crime to feel safer on London’s streets.
Farrah said: “I am always thinking of how to prevent crimes and with Coronavirus pushing certain crime levels up we need protecting when out and about on the streets.
“Digital Safety Pods are part of the future especially with BT selling their phone boxes, we can transform these into the Digital Safety Pods keep the use for phone boxes and use them to save lives.
“It is so sad that in this day and age we have had to think of crime prevention tools like this, especially to keep people safe and secure. I would like to create a space where if you or a loved one is running in fear or threat of violence, then the Digital Safety Pods can keep you out of harms reach from the suspect.”
Farrah is currently looking for donations and ideas to contribute towards her first digital safety pod, which will be trialled in a high crime area.
You can find more about the campaign here: https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/digital-safety-pods
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