Police suggests app for sexual consent

CANBERRA, AUSTRALIA — A senior Australian policeman suggested on Thursday a phone app be developed to document sexual consent in a bid to improve conviction rates in sex crime cases.

New South Wales state Police Commissioner Mick Fuller said dating apps have brought couples together and the same technology could also provide clarity on the question of consent.

“Technology doesn’t fix everything, but ... it plays such a big role in people meeting at the moment. I’m just suggesting: is it part of the solution?” Fuller said.

He said the number of sexual assaults reported in Australia’s most populous state was increasing while a prosecution success rate of only 2% stemming from those reports showed the system was failing.

“Consent can’t be implied,” Fuller wrote in News Corp. newspapers. “Consent must be active and ongoing throughout a sexual encounter.”

Responses to the consent app suggestion have been largely negative or skeptical.

State Premier Gladys Berejiklian congratulated Fuller on

“taking a leadership position on having the conversation” about the sexual assault problem, but declined to share her opinion on the app.

More than 100,000 women protested in rallies across Australia on Monday demanding justice while calling out misogyny and dangerous workplace cultures.

The public anger erupted after the Australian attorney general denied an allegation that he raped a 16-year-old girl 33 years ago, and a former government staffer alleged that she was raped two years ago by a colleague in a minister’s Parliament House office.