Support
01 Get in touch
SafeRoute is built and maintained by one person, so support runs over email — no chatbots, no ticket queue, no phone line. Messages go to me directly and I aim to reply within 48 hours.
To help me triage faster, please use a clear subject line:
Bug report— something broke or behaved unexpectedlyFeature request— something you'd like to see addedPrivacy request— data subject rights under UK GDPRGeneral— anything else
02 Where SafeRoute works
SafeRoute adapts to wherever you are. In the United Kingdom, safety scoring is built on data.police.uk; in the United States, it uses each covered city's official open crime data. The app automatically picks the right source, emergency number (999 / 911), and safe-place data for your location.
United Kingdom
| Region | Status | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| England | Supported | All 39 territorial forces, plus the British Transport Police. |
| Wales | Supported | All four Welsh forces publish to data.police.uk. |
| Northern Ireland | Partial | PSNI data is published but with a longer lag than English/Welsh forces. |
| Scotland | Not yet | Police Scotland does not currently publish to data.police.uk. Routing still works in Scottish cities, but safety scoring is unavailable. |
United States
US coverage is city-by-city — each city publishes its own crime data, so safety scoring is available within these cities:
| City | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|
| New York | Supported | NYPD via NYC Open Data |
| Chicago | Supported | Chicago Police via Chicago Data Portal |
| San Francisco | Supported | SFPD via DataSF |
| Boston | Supported | Boston PD via Analyze Boston |
| Seattle | Supported | SPD via Seattle Open Data |
| Philadelphia | Supported | Philadelphia PD via OpenDataPhilly |
| Washington, D.C. | Supported | MPD via Open Data DC |
Outside a covered UK region or US city, routing and search may still work, but safety scoring won't be available. If you see 0 incidents loaded, the most common reasons are: you're outside a covered area (e.g. Scotland, or a US city we don't yet cover), your device has no internet, or the upstream crime-data service is experiencing a temporary outage.
03 Frequently asked questions
Why is my safety score so low?
The score weights nearby reported incidents by severity and proximity within a 150-metre corridor around your route, drawing on the last 12 months of published data. A score of 39%, for example, means the route runs through areas with a moderate density of recent incidents — it's an aggregate of historical reports, not a prediction of what will happen on your walk.
The same route shows different scores at different times — why?
In the UK, data.police.uk publishes a new dataset on the last working day of each month, covering incidents from roughly two months earlier. US city portals update on their own schedules — typically far more frequently. Your score changes when the underlying data is refreshed, or when more or fewer reports are filed in your area. Time-of-day weighting also nudges the score — from each US city's actual reported incident times where available, or an aggregate-pattern heuristic in the UK.
How fresh is the crime data?
It depends on the source. data.police.uk (UK) releases monthly, with roughly a two-month publishing lag. US city open-data portals generally update more often — many daily or weekly. SafeRoute always pulls the most recent data available for your location, and your device caches it locally so the app works smoothly between updates.
Why does my Apple Watch say "waiting for iPhone"?
The watch app communicates with the iPhone via Apple's WatchConnectivity framework. Try:
- Unlock both your iPhone and your Watch
- Make sure Bluetooth is on (or both devices are on the same Wi-Fi)
- Open SafeRoute on iPhone once — this wakes the connection
- Pull-to-refresh on the watch screen
My share link expired — what happened?
Share links auto-expire to protect your privacy. They end automatically when:
- You mark your walk as arrived
- Four hours pass since the link was created — whichever comes first
Once expired, the page tells your recipient the walk has ended. Create a new link from the route screen if you want to continue sharing.
The Live Activity disappeared from my Lock Screen
iOS imposes an eight-hour hard limit on Live Activities and ends them automatically at that point. They can also be dismissed by swiping. SafeRoute will only restart the Live Activity when you begin a new route — it won't re-add itself to a dismissed Lock Screen during an active walk.
Can I use SafeRoute offline?
Not yet. SafeRoute needs internet for routing, search, safety data, and share sessions. The map will keep showing tiles it has already loaded, but a fresh route plan won't be possible without a connection. We're exploring offline tile caching for a future release.
How do I delete my data?
Uninstall the app. SafeRoute doesn't use accounts, persistent identifiers, or stored profiles, so removing the app removes everything held on your device. The backend keeps anonymous request logs for up to 30 days for abuse prevention, then deletes them automatically. See the privacy policy for full detail.
04 Troubleshooting
| Symptom | Try this |
|---|---|
| 0 incidents loaded in a covered area | Check your internet connection. If you're in Scotland or outside a covered US city, this is expected — there's no crime data to score. In a covered area, the most likely cause is a temporary outage of the upstream crime-data service; try again in a few minutes. |
| Search returns no results for a place you know exists | Try a more specific name — a street, postcode/ZIP, or landmark. Search uses Mapbox geocoding, biased to your region; obscure points of interest may not be indexed. Postcodes and ZIP codes are usually most reliable. |
| Off-route alerts not firing | SafeRoute needs background location access to detect deviations. Go to Settings → SafeRoute → Location and ensure it's set to Always. On the Watch, ensure motion permissions are granted. |
| App crashes immediately on launch | Force-quit (swipe up from the app switcher) and re-open. If the crash persists, email us with your device model and iOS version so we can investigate. |
| Recipient of share link sees stale location | The recipient must keep the link page open in their browser. iOS Safari can throttle background tabs after some time. Asking the recipient to keep the tab visible (or to tap refresh) usually fixes this. |
| Route looks identical with and without safety on | In low-density areas, the safest path and the shortest path are often the same. The app shows multiple candidates labelled Recommended, Safest, and Shortest Path — compare the safety scores to see the trade-off. |
| "Unauthorized" error on share link | Older share links created before May 2026 may not work after our backend security update. Create a fresh link from the app. |
05 Reporting a bug
Bug reports are extraordinarily helpful — they're often the only way I find out something is broken. To make a report actionable, please include:
- Device model — Settings → General → About → Model Name
- iOS / watchOS version — Settings → General → About → Software Version
- SafeRoute version — visible at the bottom of the in-app info screen (tap ⓘ on the main planner)
- What you were doing when the issue happened
- What you expected versus what actually happened
- A screenshot or screen recording if you have one
- Approximate time of the issue (helps me check backend logs)
If your bug relates to share links, please include the link URL — those are anonymous and don't contain personal data.
06 Requesting a feature
Every feature request gets read. SafeRoute deliberately does not run analytics or in-app feedback prompts, so direct email is your only voice into the roadmap.
It helps to describe the problem you're trying to solve, not just the solution you have in mind — sometimes a small adjustment to an existing feature solves the same problem more cleanly than a brand-new one.
07 Privacy and your data
SafeRoute does not require accounts, store personal identifiers, or run trackers. For full detail on what we process and your rights under UK GDPR, see the privacy policy.
For data subject access requests, deletion requests, or anything else covered by UK GDPR, email with the subject Privacy request and we'll respond within one calendar month.
08 Service status
SafeRoute depends on a small number of upstream services. If routing or safety data breaks across the app for many users at once, the cause is almost always one of these:
| Provider | What it powers | Status page |
|---|---|---|
| Mapbox | Map tiles, routing, turn-by-turn navigation, and place search | status.mapbox.com |
| data.police.uk | UK crime statistics | data.police.uk/changelog |
| US city open-data portals | US crime statistics (NYC Open Data, Chicago Data Portal, DataSF, Analyze Boston, Seattle Open Data, OpenDataPhilly, Open Data DC) | Varies by city |
| OpenStreetMap (Overpass) | Safe-place lookups (Find Help) and street-lighting data | operations.osmfoundation.org |
| Render | SafeRoute backend hosting | status.render.com |
If you experience a sudden, widespread issue, checking these status pages first can save you from waiting on a reply. If a disruption lasts more than an hour, I'll post an update here.