It doesn’t have to be fire stations. But they are commonly used for a few good reasons.

They’re relatively ubiquitous. It shouldn’t be hard for someone to locate a fire station. They’re almost always staffed 24/7. They’re trained on basic first aid. Quite often, they’ll even have medics on staff.

Very importantly, though, they don’t have a lot of people coming in and out of them. One of the big benefits of this program is that there are zero questions asked and it’s as anonymous as you wish. The people who use these are often afraid they’ll be judged as a failure. The lockboxes have a built-in time delay so you can leave before the station is alerted.

Toddlers are perfect for getting in all the small fiery caverns which the grown firemen can’t fit into.

As long as you’re not black, of course.

Dazzle camouflage would probably work better against AI and facial recognition. Highly reflective clothing would probably also work.