UK eyes ‘walk me home’ phone-tracker to protect lone women

By DANICA KIRKA
Associated Press

LONDON (AP) — A top British government official is backing a phone company’s proposal for a new tracking service to help protect girls and women walking alone. A phone company executive pitched the idea amid ongoing outrage over the slayings of two women who were targeted near their homes in London. The chief executive of Britain’s biggest phone company, BT, said the “walk me home” service would track a user’s journey and send an alert to her emergency contacts if she didn’t reach her destination on time. Home Secretary Priti Patel told the Daily Mail newspaper she supported the idea and the service “would be good to get going as soon as we can.”