'Citizen' App Provides Real-Time Crime Alerts In Your Neighborhood
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- A new kind of app is bringing 911 crime and safety alerts straight to your phone.
The Citizen app launched Monday in Minneapolis and St. Paul. It combines emergency information with user-generated content to keep people updated on what's happening in their neighborhood.
The app will send notifications about the type of crime that's happening, how close it is to you, and possibly a description of the suspect. It's also designed to send an update about whether or not an arrest was made.
Ben Jealous is an investor in Citizen, and a former NAACP president.
"If you're near that incident when it pops up on your phone, you can live stream what you are seeing," Jealous said. "We make sure that when first responders have responded, it's in there. That when a suspect has been apprehended, it's in there."
He said the app allows you to link up with other people, so parents can receive alerts if there is an incident at their child's school. In New York City, where the app launched years ago, it's also been used to help find missing persons.
"Increasingly, people who are in multi-story apartment buildings finding out that there's a fire next door or downstairs from the app," Jealous said. "When you have a street light, now you can avoid something you need to avoid and you can help when you need to help. Citizen.com is like a street light for the 21st century."
But there is some apprehension. Sara Lageson, a Minnesota native and a professor at Rutgers University, has written papers about Citizen.
"It might give people a false sense of what's going on with crime," Lageson said.
She sees it as useful, but hopes people take into account additional sources when it comes to crime.
"It's an interesting app, but there's pros and cons, and it's up to the users to be thoughtful about how to use it," Lageson said.
Citizen said the app is free, and funded by venture capitalists. They say your personal data will never be shared through the app.
