A safety call is a way to let others know you are in distress or even in danger without someone who is listening in on the phone call realizing that you are alerting the person on the other end of your situation.
Explaining the “safety call”
The “safety call” is an important way to protect yourself when meeting a potential disciplinarian. Of course, this requires that you have someone like a trusted friend who trust enough to reveal to that you are meeting someone you met online, at the minimum. Rather than simply making a phone call to someone telling them you are alright, there is an additional safeguard in place. Since you could be forced to make a phone call stating that you are fine, the safety call is a way to eliminate that possibility.
While informing your trusted friend, you set up an additional code phrase. When you say this code phrase during the actual phone conversation, your friend should immediately alert the police. Make sure it is an inconspicuous phrase, so the man you are meeting isn’t alarmed. Here is an example conversation:
You: “Hi, it’s me.”
Friend: “Hello, how are things going?”
You: “Everything’s fine, we’re still at the restaurant now.”
Friend: “Good to know. Are you having a good time?”
You: “Yes, but I’m worried about my cat, could you check up on her?”
Friend: “Sure, I’ll pop over to your place.”
As soon as you mention you’re worried about the cat, your friend will know you’re in trouble. He or she could even ask about the cat, to make sure you’re not forgetting about the code phrase. It’s important that your friend doesn’t indicate he/she will call the police, because there is the possibility you are forced to make the call on speaker phone. However, after this conversation, your friend should indeed immediately inform the police.
The safety call can be enhanced further by making use of location sharing functions on your smart phone, which allow you to share your location in near real time with your friend. At least (s)he will be able to give the location from where the phone call was made.
Hopefully you will never need this but remember this information. It may save your life!