Argentina. In recent times the Municipality of Patagones was carrying out the implementation of technological innovations with the focus on the safety of its neighbors, highlighting the program to combat gender violence that has as its protagonist the SmarPanics application provided by SoftGuard.
In the meeting held at the offices of Puerto Madero, Buenos Aires, the Coordinator of the Monitoring Center of Carmen de Patagones, Florencia Gómez mentioned that the implementation of the panic button in the Municipality was very important since it allowed them to empower women and assist them by allowing them to send an SOS Alert if required, wherever you are. Florencia Gómez is in charge of personally contacting the victim and together with the technicians they install the application of the panic button to the woman, in her words: "Once the victim understood how the whole panic system works we do the test, she goes home calmly, we send the office to the court warning that we registered the app to this victim, to communal police and monitoring so that it is also within the issue."
Thanks to the SmartPanics app, women can report different types of violence, whether it is domestic violence, street harassment, domestic violence and workplace violence.
"At the moment we have 8 victims, one of them is a minor, she is 17 years old, she goes daily to her school where she is a double shift, the aggressor is continuously harassing her, he tells her that he is going to pick her up at school. In situations like this we install the button on her cell phone, because she uses it continuously. Now it is much calmer," Gomez said, making it clear that "all cases are different, some need assistance faster than others but they are all different. We are giving security to that person, they are taken care of and we are in contact because there is a 24-hour operator in the monitoring center."
At the meeting, the SoftGuard advisor of the Safe Municipality Program, Sergio Gutiérrez, asked the guest what were the challenges that the Municipality of Patagones encountered when implementing technology for the safety of its women. Gómez stressed that "for the operators it is still a challenge because they feel a responsibility, that as soon as the alert sounds in a matter of seconds they have to act, call the police, contact the victim, the challenge is still because it is a matter of seconds, it is to get to know, trying to act giving an answer but more than anything the challenge for me is still because it is something new and that we are learning day by day"
Thus the Municipality of Patagones contributes to the safety and integrity not only of women but of the entire community, which in the words of Gómez, "we are happy because we not only responded to a social demand for security but it gives results and little by little we all leave as integrating and learning together"
After receiving the recognition from SoftGuard, the Coordinator of the Monitoring Center of Carmen de Patagones, mentioned that from the Municipality they want to be able to advance much more technologically and politically thinking about all the citizens of Patagones in general, "there are many foci of fires because there are many fields, that was also novel, people were surprised because through pressing the fire button in the App it is a matter of seconds to give warning and let the answer arrive"
SoftGuard congratulates Florencia Gómez and the entire Municipality of Carmen de Patagones for successfully carrying out the comprehensive program for the assistance of gender-based violence and for implementing the SmartPanics app to empower and give more security to its citizens.
