Councilman Hoping To Bring Crime Reporting App To Pittsburgh
NORTH SIDE (KDKA) – Pittsburgh City Councilman Rev. Ricky Burgess has introduced a bill that would potentially give anyone with a smartphone the ability to report crime with technology far beyond dialing 911.
"Imagine multiplying your entire police force for free: introducing Sentiguard," says a commercial for the app.
It allows smartphone users to choose the type of crime, select the date and time of the incident and report it to police.
"And be able to send a message both anonymously and with your name directly to the police and you can attack photographs and video so you can have instant access to the police and report crime or any kind of illegal activity," said Burgess.
"By downloading the Sentiguard app, member of your community can report from their cellphones any suspicious or criminal activity instantly to your police department via text, voice messages, images or the exclusive Sentiguard streaming service where the police force can see the criminal act in real time as it happens," says the app's commercial.
The goal isn't to encourage anyone to get too close to a crime scene, but rather give police a head's up more quickly than they may have been able to get information.
All of this is in the very preliminary planning stages. The councilman hopes to meet with police to talk about feasibility next week.
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