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- <text id=92TT1512>
- <title>
- July 06, 1992: Help is a Push Away
- </title>
- <history>
- TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1992
- July 06, 1992 Pills for the Mind
- </history>
- <article>
- <source>Time Magazine</source>
- <hdr>
- THE WEEK, Page 21
- SOCIETY
- Help is a Push Away
- </hdr><body>
- <p>A new device combats the spread of domestic violence
- </p>
- <p> No battered woman ever feels completely safe from an attack
- by an abusive husband or boyfriend -- even one barred by
- injunction from contacting her. Because plenty of assailants
- simply refuse to stay away, police departments and women's
- shelters in Boston and Knoxville will be providing "panic
- buttons" that allow victims to summon help electronically. ADT
- Security Systems of Tampa is offering electronic devices free of
- charge to a limited number of women in cities participating in
- the six-month pilot program. The devices are worn as pendants or
- installed in homes as security-system panels. A woman fearing
- imminent assault can press her panic button, which relays a
- signal through her telephone line to ADT dispatchers, who in
- turn notify police. The victim must be inside her home or
- within 200 ft. of it for the device to work. To be eligible for
- the test program, already under way in Tampa and Jacksonville,
- the women must agree in advance to press charges if the
- assailant is caught. Said ADT spokesman Jay Stuck: "This is not
- designed for a woman who's had a bad Saturday night with her
- husband."
- </p>
-
- </body></article>
- </text>
-
-