Hitch-Hikers Using Security Text Service

A cellphone text service set up after the murder of a German tourist is proving a hit with hitch-hikers around New Zealand.

Telecom launched its Safe service following the death of German hitch- hiker Birgit Brauer, near New Plymouth in September 2005.

The service was aimed at people walking late at night or getting into vehicles driven by someone they did not know.

Safe allows Telecom mobile users to send a free text message to 7233 when they want details of their whereabouts, intended destination and car number plate to be recorded.

The idea for the service came from journalist Simon Louisson.

Telecom spokesman Sean Martin said several hundred messages had been lodged on the database since its inception in October.

“It is difficult to put an exact figure on the total as messages are removed after a couple of months,” Martin said.

“The mere fact that people are using the service means it is a success. It is available for those people who want to use it. Prior to the launch, nothing like this existed.

“When it was launched, a press release was distributed to media outlets and the details of the service were sent to the YHA (Youth Hostel Association) and Women’s Refuge.”

The launch of the service had been kept deliberately low-key, because the murder of Brauer was still fresh in people’s minds, he said.

Information promoting Safe appears on Telecom’s website and is included in mobile information leaflets.

Telecom intends to step up promotion of the service this year.

“Telecom has no plans to stop providing the free service. Telecom covers the costs associated with the service and will continue to do so,” Martin said.

Louisson said he was pleased the service was doing well. He had received a lot of positive feedback.

However he thought it needed to be promoted a bit better.

“If they don’t do that, then it is in danger of … dying through not being supported,” he said.

He believed the service could be used by a whole range of people, including prostitutes getting into strange cars.

“It is a way of using technology to make the world a wee bit safer.

“It is not going to stop these things, but I imagine that guy who did what he did to Birgit Brauer, if he had been clocked like that I doubt he would have done what he did,” Louisson said.

——————–