Going Out Safety Guidelines
Below are some essential tips to keeping safe when you are out partying.
- Be prepared and plan ahead. Know where you are going, how you are getting there and how you will get home. Use Safe Journey Home's Directory to find ideas for going out with restaurants, bars, clubs and entertainment venues all listed. Safe Journey Home Directory
- Try and pre-book your taxi, or arrange a lift home. Do not accept lifts from cruising cabs or touts and try to travel home with a friend. Book a taxi / private hire car
- Stay in control of your drinking, remember you are more vulnerable when drinking - never accept a drink from someone you do not entirely trust.
- For a more tips please visit Strathclyde Police's safety guidelines.
Safe Journey Home Safety Service Guide
The service provided by Safe Journey Home is not just limited to travelling in taxis. See below for a list of other ways to use Safe Journey Home.
- When you hail a taxi - STOP! Before you get in take note of the Taxi licence number and vehicle registration number from the rear of the car, take a note of the car make, model and colour. The Taxi driver should not have a problem with you doing this - legitimate taxi drivers are there for your safety too. Text all the info (especially the car make, model and colour - after all the plates may be false/stolen etc) to Safe Journey Home at 07786 200 699. This gives you reassurance that should you become a victim of crime the Police have valuable information to help them with their investigation. This is the REACTIVE safety measure.
- After you text Safe Journey Home with your car details - if you feel comfortable drop this into the conversation with the driver. We will be actively advertising Safe Journey Home to taxi firms across the country so they should recognise our service as a good thing. If you are in a car with an illegitimate taxi driver this should alert them to the fact you have left details which Police can trace back to him/her and stop them before any crime takes place. This is the PREVENTATIVE safety measure.
- Whenever you are in a car/taxi with someone you don't know or just met - even if the person is a friend of a friend - use Safe Journey Home text service. Supply us the car make, model, colour and registration number so that the car can be traced by Police in light of any crime.
- Safe Journey Home is not just there as a service against serious crime - it can be useful for less serious things such as losing your purse/wallet. If we have Taxi licence number we should be able to help you trace the taxi and driver.
- If you are putting a vulnerable friend into a taxi, text Safe Journey Home the same vital information as normal and tell the taxi driver you have done so. This should ensure your friend's safety using our Preventative Service and give re-assurance to your friend.
You can give your Login details to parents/guardian/partner. This allows
them to login to Safe Journey Home and see when you entered a taxi along with
the car details. This is useful when you are out on a night out - when you
are on the way home text Safe Journey Home and your parents/guardian/partner
can gain peace of mind by checking your text log on our site.- Why not just text my family/friend? Do you have someone you can text this information to? Are your parents text-savvy enough not to delete the text! Would your friend necessarily know the importance of the text and save it? Safe Journey Home securely holds every text in their database without risk of deletion. It is available to the police immediately upon receipt of the text. We also hold the information for a significant period of time - usually over one year - in case it becomes valuable information at a later date.
If you use the service differently or you have other ways to increase your safety please let us know via our contact form - we'd be delighted to hear from you and we will add your best suggestions here.