Dutch National Police

Social Media Panic Button

As part of a multidisciplinary team of ICT students, I collaborated with the Dutch National Police – Oost-Brabant Unit to design and develop a digital solution that makes emergency help more accessible to young people and vulnerable individuals via social media platforms.

Many young people experience barriers when calling 112 — due to fear, language, disability, or social pressure. Police officers and influencers often receive emergency messages via Instagram DM, but these messages are easily missed and not actionable.

The challenge

How can we create a solution that enables young users to report emergencies via social media in a safe, intuitive, and verifiable way — without bypassing the official 112 systems?

Our concept:

A panic button integrated on police-related social media pages (such as Instagram profiles of wijkagenten or influencers), which redirects users to a secure form. This form guides them through a short series of smart questions to identify whether the situation is urgent.

My role – UX/UI & frontend dashboard development

I was responsible for both the design and frontend development of the dashboard interface

UX/UI design in Figma

• I designed the full dashboard interface in Figma, making sure it was:

• Clear, fast and intuitive for officers to use

• Visually consistent with their existing control room systems

• Easy to navigate under time pressure

• I held multiple check-ins with stakeholders from the police to validate the design and ensure alignment with real-world workflows.

Frontend development in React

• I built the dashboard in React, working closely with the software developers who created the backend infrastructure.

• I handled:

• Connecting frontend to backend data (matching keys)

• Building the chat system using Firebase as a temporary solution to showcase real-time interaction between users and the control room

• Ensuring all reports entered via the panic button app appeared instantly and clearly in the dashboard interface

Final result

The dashboard is now part of a fully functional proof of concept, where police officers can:

• Receive real-time reports via the panic button app

• View and manage messages through a clean, structured interface

• Chat directly with the sender when needed

Thanks to the design’s familiar layout and intuitive flow, officers can quickly switch between this concept dashboard and their existing tools — making it easy to adopt in real-world scenarios.