Govt unveils new domestic violence app

The government’s new mobile application allowing victims of domestic violence to report incidents directly to the police, named Elpis from the Greek word for hope, was unveiled on Monday.

The app allows victims to send an emergency ‘SOS’ message to alert police to their situation.

Speaking at the app’s unveiling, Justice Minister Marios Hartsiotis spoke of “great joy and emotion” at the completion of the app.

“A lot of effort was made to reach this point, hence my joy and emotion, because the Elpis app is finally being implemented, and it is being implemented at a time when domestic violence is indeed an issue which concerns all of us on a daily basis, unfortunately,” he said.

He explained that the app is “specially designed”, and said that “victims of domestic violence, the vast majority of whom are admittedly women, can, with the press of a button, quietly notify the police, calling for help”.

He described the app as a “silent alarm”, and added that pilot uses of the app have produced “very satisfactory results so far”.

“Today, we are pleased to put the Elpis app into full operation, recognising that in countries where similar ‘panic buttons’ are implemented … they have saved the lives of hundreds of women by preventing extreme incidents of violence and abuse, which, unfortunately, not infrequently result in femicide,” he said.

On this matter, he said the new app will “save the lives of dozens if not hundreds of women who experience domestic violence and are desperately seeking a safe and effective solution to the problem which afflicts them and concerns not only them, but also society and the state as a whole”.

Police chief Themistos Arnaoutis also spoke at the app’s launch, describing it as a “positive step”.

He described the app as “a modern technological tool which strengthens our operational capacity to respond with speed, discretion, accuracy and safety to incidents of domestic violence”.

“With Elpis, the police quite literally reaches closer to the public, and especially to every vulnerable fellow human being, to every victim who lives in fear, silence and unsafe conditions,” he said.

The Cyprus Police Elpis app is available at the Google play store