Skip to content
Mitie partners WalkSafe as people feel unsafe after dark
As Mitie announces its partnership with WalkSafe, the UK’s leading personal safety app, a new survey on perceptions of safety has found that 44% of women and 21% of men do not feel safe when walking in the dark.
Over half (51%) of women revealed their biggest fear is being followed by a stranger in the dark, while over a third (34%) confirmed they feel vulnerable to sexual assault.
WalkSafe founder, Emma Kay, became convinced of the need for an app that gives users information about their surroundings and route home due to inappropriate behaviour she faced as a young woman.
She said: “I started WalkSafe to empower people to take precautionary measures to protect their own safety, something I feel strongly about after experiencing harassment in the street.”
The survey, which questioned 2,000 adults, sheds light on what is driving raised awareness of personal safety on the streets after dark.
Findings included:
- 69% of people make changes to their route in the winter to avoid potential trouble spots and feel safer.
- More than one in 10 women (15%) are prepared to miss social occasions to avoid walking in the dark.
- While women feel threatened by the prospect of being followed or sexually assaulted, being mugged or becoming a victim of knife crime concerns two fifths of men (40%) and over a quarter (28%) of men respectively.
Safety partnership
Mitie is proud to be working with WalkSafe as part of our commitment to create safer communities.
Mitie colleagues will be empowered to take the safest journey home with access to WalkSafe’s award-winning technology. This combines journey-sharing features with a national safe space map providing information based on both police data and precautionary information from other app users. This is an enhanced service developed by Mitie.
Emma said: “Mitie is bringing its security intelligence services so together we can add a layer of protection for Mitie colleagues that has not been available before.”
Mitie’s intelligence operatives will be able to support colleagues using the WalkSafe app
Employers have duty of care
The partnership comes as almost three quarters (71%) of men and women said more needs to be done to improve street safety, with one in five (19%) stating employers should bear the responsibility.
Managing Director, Mitie Business Services, Jason Towse, said: “Our friends, families and colleagues should all be able to travel safely, whether on transport networks or simply walking home. In developing this support in partnership with WalkSafe, we want to enable safer communities where we can all live and work.”
*Survey of 2,000 adults conducted by Opinium on behalf of Mitie.
Read next
Almost half of women feel unsafe on our streets, survey finds
New research from Mitie, the UK’s leading security provider, and Walksafe, the UK’s leading personal safety app, shows that almost half of women (44%) and a fifth of men (21%) feel unsafe when walking…
Mitie’s Security Radar reveals key industry challenges
New research from Mitie, the UK’s largest security provider, reveals that a quarter (24%) of security decision-makers are not sure which upcoming legislation will impact their organisations. The survey of over 100 senior security…
Mitie Security works with the National Portrait Gallery to provide a safer and more secure space for visitors in Central London
Safe Havens are a part of the collective effort to address the issue of Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) from the Safer Business Network, in partnership with the Police, Councils, the Security Industry…