A new, free smartphone app – Flare Report – has been launched to help women and girls feel and be safer on the streets of Northamptonshire.

Women and girls can use it to report incidents and behaviour that are inappropriate and make them feel unsafe, such as cat-calling, comments or touching, street harassment or other threatening behaviour.

Flare is not for reporting crimes in progress that need an immediate response, but Police will check reports every day to make sure that nothing that needs an urgent response has been submitted.

Northamptonshire Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner Stephen Mold has brought the app to the county and hopes that reports made on Flare will help to build a clearer picture of where incidents are happening and give women the confidence to report things that might otherwise go unreported.

Stephen Mold said: "We know anecdotally that many women and girls simply would not report incidents like cat-calling, street harassment or even unwanted touching to Police, either because they are embarrassed, or they don't think it will be taken seriously.

"We can't live in a community where women accept that harassment is just something that happens to everyone, we must call it out. Flare Report is the mechanism for doing that."

The app can be installed on your phone here, by searching for 'Flare Reporting' on Google Play or Apple Store