Digi Police is Japan’s anti-groper app

An app in Japan specifically aimed at scaring off molesters is apparently massively succcessful in the country, according to AFP News.

The free smartphone app Digi Police, launched by the Tokyo Metropolitan Police three years ago, has been downloaded more than 237,000 times, which police official Keiko Toyamine described to AFP as an “unusually high figure.”

So, how does the app work?

Let’s say a person faces unwanted groping on a packed subway. They can proceed to activate the app, which either blasts a voice shouting “stop it,” or produces a full-screen message saying “there is a molester. please help,” to show to other passengers.

In Tokyo, there were almost 900 groping and other harassment cases on trains and subways reported in 2017, according to data from the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department.

As Akiyoshi Saito, a certified social worker in Japan, told AFP, groping can occur anywhere with crowded trains.