Greece to introduce “Panic Button” for victims of domestic violence

Greece plans to introduce a “panic button” to fight gender-related and domestic violence. The relevant bill was introduced for voting in the plenary session of the Parliament on Thursday.

The “panic button” is an application to be installed on smart phones and alert Police in cases of domestic violence.

Once pressed the “panic button” sends a short text message (sms) to police that will establish two relevant centers in Attica and Thessaloniki, where the pilot program will first be active.

The bill at the Parliament refereed to incidents of family violence associated with a threat or danger to life or physical integrity, for the purpose of immediate intervention by the police force.

Eligible for registration in the application during the pilot operation of the program are female victims of domestic violence who live in the Region of Attica and the Regional Unit of Thessaloniki

After the end of the pilot application, the “Panic Button” program will be evaluated by the competent services of the Ministries of Labor and Social Affairs and Citizen Protection.