Citizen crime monitoring app debuts
Public safety alerts are sent to users’ smartphones.
A popular smartphone app that sends users real-time public safety alerts and lets them upload video from crime scenes has debuted in Cleveland.
The free app, Citizen, culls info from police scanners and sends notifications to users’ smartphones. It’s designed as a public safety tool, said Ben Jealous, a former president of the NAACP and an investor in the company.
“When you give people that information in real time, they can make better decisions to keep themselves safer, and keep their loved ones safer,” Jealous said.
Anyone at or near a crime scene can upload video to share with other Citizen users. Employees monitor those videos and remove any graphic content that may include violence, salacious imagery or profanity, Jealous said.
“You’re not going to get more followers based on your video. So there’s no incentive to misbehave, or be shocking,” Jealous said. “This is literally a public safety utility where folks are simply able to share what they’re seeing.”
Citizen employs a team of former first responders and journalists, who monitor police scanner traffic from an office in New York City. They send location-based notifications to smartphones; Cleveland users are notified of crimes within a 2-mile radius.
The app also lets users link their accounts, so they can get alerts near someone else. That function lets parents monitor crime near their children, for example, Jealous said.
Several media outlets, including the New York Times and Buzzfeed, have argued that apps like Citizen may foster a sense of paranoia among users. Frequent cellphone alerts could create a sense of data overload, said Andrew Geronino, a fellow and director of the IP Venture Clinic at Case Western Reserve University’s law school.
“I fear that we’re living in fear of crime happening all around us, and (that’s) making us increasingly insulated and paranoid about things,” Geronimo said.
The criticism is not unique to Citizen. Other technology, such as doorbell cameras and live-streamed video, have created concern that people are constantly being filmed, Geronimo said. He also believes it may be better to let trusted sources, such as police or media, gather information about a crime and report facts to the public.
Geronimo does see benefit to apps like Citizen, though, because they could alert someone to a legitimate threat.
“If there is a real threat, and I’m walking right into it, it could be valuable to know,” he said.
Citizen garnered controversy upon its launch under its former name, Vigilante, in 2016. Apple’s App Store banned the app amid concerns it encouraged users to actively participate in crimefighting. It rebranded as a public safety tool and changed its name to Citizen before it re-launched in 2017. It’s grown since then, reaching more than 1 million users in New York City, Jealous said.
The app moved to coastal cities including Baltimore, San Francisco and Los Angeles before coming to Cleveland. It also debuted recently in other Midwest cities such as Detroit and Indianapolis.
The app is location-based, but Jealous said the company has no plans to sell any user data to third parties.
“There’s no selling of your data,” Jealous said. “Lots of other apps do that, but we will never do that.”
Similar apps and social networks have been criticized for promoting racial profiling through “suspicious person” reports, which may include a description of a person even though no crime has occurred. Jealous said Citizen has taken steps to prevent racial profiling; the app does not send out “suspicious person” reports.
“We’re concerned about the proliferation of suspicion on other apps, and the way that can reinforce patterns of discrimination. So we have very tight standards,” Jealous said.
The Cleveland police department did not respond to a request for comment on the app, but Jealous said police in other cities have been welcoming.
“There are many police chiefs around the country who have welcomed us into their cities, because they realize it takes all of us to help keep our communities safer,” Jealous said.
A Baltimore Police Department spokesman said the app has not led to any issues. People typically vacate an area when they receive a crime alert from the app, said Baltimore police Detective Donny Moses.