Help on call

Public reporting of crime has passed a watershed: more than half of all reports now come in by mobile phone, says Kathy Woodward of Shields Environmental, who operate the Fonebak recycling scheme. Now the elderly, sick and disabled, and people most at risk from crime, harassment and domestic violence, are to get instant one-touch access to 999 emergency calls under a new pilot ‘fones4safety’ scheme using recycled mobile phones. That’s if they live in the Elephant and Castle area of London - but a six-month pilot scheme there could be extended across London and nationwide if it proves successful.

Donated phones will be reconfigured as personal safety alarms for fones4safety use through Fonebak. Apart from their simple emergency call function they won’t be useable for other outgoing calls. They will, however, be enabled to receive incoming calls from selected support agencies, to provide users with reassurance.

Southwark Metropolitan Police and Victim Support are both on board for the six-month pilot, co-ordinated by the Community Recycling in Southwark Project (CRISP) and part funded by the government’s Single Regeneration Budget (SRB). The phone company T-Mobile has donated a number of mobiles to get fones4safety off to a solid start, and is also sponsoring advertisements to raise public awareness of the recycling drop-off and collection arrangements.

22 May 2003