Viviane Faver

A Brooklyn-based group called Safe Walks NYC offers safe walking from subway stations in response to violence in the neighborhood. In an exclusive interview for the New York Beacon, founder Peter Kerre -also founder of Street Riders NYC and involved in the Black Lives Matter movement-tells the story of Safewalks, which started in the light of the recent attacks on women around the Morgan L. Train.

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“As an area resident, I was already concerned about the rising cases of assault against women. The fifth one, where the lady posted pictures of her face bruised is what led me to say enough is enough, and I jumped on my bike and rode to the station to post up and hopefully be a deterrent and protect anyone in danger if need be.”

Kerre He adds that, unfortunately, the violence has increased as New Yorkers’ financial situation has changed due to the Covid-19 epidemic. At the moment, in addition to Social Justice efforts via Street Riders NYC, which is the largest body that helped expand Safewalks, the group is trying to build an application/platform to allow the expansion of Safewalk efforts—recalling that they are always open to volunteers, with New York having more than 10 million residents. 

The volunteer form can be found on Instagram. “Volunteers do the Safewalks, and we verify that they are all residents in the neighborhood,” he says. 

“Iniciatives such as self-policing are give a glimpse of how the future will be. We are excited to work on this. We have many initiatives aligned about the larger movement, mainly because it is an election year. We will be questioning any potential candidates heavily through our large platforms to ensure they can not only show us how much they have already done for the residents they represent but what their plans are.”

 How does it work?

1. User requests safe walk from IG ( verification of a valid user is via IG itself requiring verification of identity to use )
2. An Admin monitoring the Safewalks app receives the request ( we ask users to request at least an hr in advance )
3. The admin then forwards the message to the residential area group depending on the related subway stops, e.g, if the user is getting off at Morgan L, then the request would go to the Bushwick Safewalk Group )
4. The request is in pending status until two safe walkers verify availability to escort the user. The admin then reaches out to the user and notifies them of the safe walkers and how they will be dressed.
5. When the safe walkers reach the user, they send a message to their signal group notifying begin of the safe walk. They send status to the signal group every five minutes minimum until the requestor’s destination. They then send a completion message and send a ‘returning’ message (whether home or to a posted base ). They send status signals every five minutes to the rest of the group until they are back at their respective locations, then submit a route completion message along with any notes. 
6. The user also texts the admin to affirm reaching the location safely.