Victims of stalking in Belgium are now able to notify the emergency center at the touch of a button. The police immediately receive the exact location and can intervene immediately. What lies behind this strong example of technical ingenuity?

Jan Zeinstra, project manager at ASTRID, developed the mobile stalking alarm. How exactly does it work?

“The stalking alarm is a small, discreet button that is wirelessly connected to the 112 BE app on the victim's smartphone. When the victim holds down the button for 3 seconds, the provincial emergency center of the federal police immediately receives a call with all the necessary information, such as the name of the victim, details about the stalker and the exact location of the victim. We made adjustments so that stalking alarm reports are more noticeable on the screens in the control rooms. The operator can see at a glance that it is stalking and immediately sends an intervention team to the scene. The supervisors of the victims receive a daily report from us so that they know when the emergency button was pressed, whether the battery is still charged, etc. The ASTRID Service Center is ready as a permanent point of contact for the supervisors and the operators of the control rooms. .”

Robust Operation

In 2019, the stalking alarm was ready for testing. This happened in a pilot project with ten victims from the Ghent police zone. Jan Zeinstra: “The benefits were clearly evident during the evaluation. The perpetrator does not notice that the victim notifies the police, because you can place the button discreetly under your clothes or wear the botton in a in a pocket. You don't even have to say anything at all. There are also various mechanisms in place to maximize the chance that the stalking alarm will reach the provincial control room.”

Easy management via MyASTRID

“For now, the button is only available for Android smartphones and not for iPhones. Unfortunately, the iOS operating system doe not yet support the automatic one call from the 112 BE app. We are fully investigating how we can solve this.” In the meantime, the button is being rolled out in more and more police zones in Belgium. “We distribute the devices at the request of the federal police. On MyASTRID, supervisors of victims can arrange their connection 24/7, monitor the status and manage all their devices.”