Justice minister proposes emergency alert buttons for delivery riders

Nicosia, Cyprus. Justice Minister Costas Fitiris on Thursday proposed giving food delivery riders a “red button” to immediately alert police if members of the public attack them. Human rights commissioner Maria Stylianou Lottides questioned the proposal and called for a systematic assessment of police measures following repeated assaults.

Emergency alert proposal

Fitiris said “there cannot be a police officer everywhere” and outlined a system under which riders could press a button to notify police of an attack.

“It takes some time to implement, provided that the companies agree, so that the delivery rider presses this button and the police can respond in a short amount of time. The police must act in a short amount of time, provided that there is timely information from the victims,” he said.

The minister said he believed robbery, rather than racism, was the motive behind most attacks.

“We found that there are also independent distributors who have a lot of money on them, and most of the time, I estimate that the motives are robbery and not racism,” he said.

Possible links to drug trafficking

Asked whether the attacks could be linked to drug trafficking, Fitiris said the issue was “being investigated”.

“There have been so many arrests recently, we do not know where to put the detainees,” he added.

“Arrests have been made, syndicates have been dismantled, others are being created, either individually or in an organised manner, but our job is to keep hunting, and to strike at the root of evil,” he said.

Commissioner calls for review of police measures

Lottides said she had written to police chief Themistos Arnaoutis about the latest spate of attacks. While acknowledging that police had already taken measures, she said “the repetition of the attacks makes it necessary to systematically evaluate their effectiveness”.

She also expressed doubts about the proposed alert buttons.

“Responsibility for workers’ safety belongs to the competent authorities and the delivery companies, and cannot be transferred to the delivery riders themselves through instructions for them to protect themselves,” she said.

Lottides called for “an immediate and comprehensive investigation” into the latest attacks and their possible motives, alongside a review of policing plans and the mapping of high-risk areas.

She said police must ensure accessible reporting channels for victims, including the removal of language barriers, and systematically record cases to identify recurring patterns of attacks.