From Monday 11 March, citizens will have a new mobile app to contact the Local Police in just a few seconds if they find themselves in a situation of risk or danger.
The name of the app is Sitges Alert, and it will be available in the Play Store and Apple Store for free. On Monday morning the Mayor of Sitges, Aurora Carbonell, local councillor David Martínez and the chief inspector of the Local Police, Jordi Altarriba, presented the new app.
The aim of the intiative is to generate greater proximity with the police force and for them to be able to act more quickly and effectively in the event of a risky or dangerous situation.
The mayor said that the most important thing about this app is ‘that it is useful for the citizens of Sitges and also for visitors, so that when they are here they feel safe’. She added that ‘the key is to also create equality, in that everyone has access whether they live in the centre or in an area further away’.
Martínez said that the app is part of the 2023 budget, and that in the 2024 budget ‘we have included the proposal for the installation of number plate recognition cameras’. In addition, he said: ‘We have also requested a prior study to install cameras on public roads and we are awaiting the report of the Video Surveillance Commission chaired by a judge of the Superior Court of Justice of Catalonia. We do all this to generate security for citizens.’
The registration process for the Sitges Alert app is very simple. Once you register, you must give permission for the police to geolocate the mobile device, an essential step in order to know the location of the person in the event of having to help them. Security also applies in terms of privacy and data protection, and therefore the police will only access the user’s location when the user sends a warning, never at any other time.
Once registered, the user will access a main menu where they will find five buttons: the alert button for situations of risk or danger, 112 for emergencies, the Purple Dot with the rainbow to report situations of gender-based violence and LGBTI+ aggression, the information button to find out the weather situation in Sitges and a notification button so that the police can issue alerts or news to other users.
When the corresponding button is pressed, the warning reaches the police immediately and the mobile from which the warning is issued is geolocated in real time. The connection between the person and the police is thus more immediate and without intermediaries, and the security force can act at any point in the municipality with greater speed.
The Chief Inspector of the Local Police, Jordi Altarriba, stressed that ‘the alert button should only be pressed in situations of danger or serious events, such as a robbery or a situation of violence or helplessness , since for other types of emergency there is 112. In addition, in the case of harassment, for example, the patrol can know at all times the route the person is taking thanks to geolocation’.
The app will only work in the municipality of Sitges. A similar one exists in other Catalan municipalities such as Vilafranca, Vendrell Torredembarra and Roda de Barà and will soon be launched in Calafell. In the rest of Spain, it has been implemented in Xàbia and Oviedo.
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