Stay Safe in Your Community With The Citizen App
5/13/2021 (Permalink)
In times of economic uncertainty, crime rates rise. Know what is happening around you and stay safe with the Citizen App. Whether a crime is taking place or there's a fire is spreading in your building or a building nearby, the app alerts you when something is happening in your area that you should know about. You can also report anything you see by taking a live video.
This free app is one of the most powerful ways to stay safe. It gives you access to verified 911 information and lets you know what is happening in real-time. The app covers events from missing pets to natural disasters and everything in between. This community transparency empowers everyone to create a safer world.
The app is connected to your phone’s GPS tracker so it will let you know what is happening around you according to your current location, not only your home address. Next time you see a road shut down and police sirens inside the closure, you have a way to understand exactly what is going on.
In some areas, the company that runs the citizen app has installed antennas that allow them to listen to police and fire scanners. Artificial intelligence along with humans then decipher what is being communicated and translate that into reports that are coded with neighborhood data inside the app. Reports are a step above what you will find on neighborhood apps like Nextdoor because the data comes not only from your neighbors but also directly from police reports.
Though live streaming from the scene of a crime can be very dangerous, getting real-time alerts to situations unfolding nearby can be life-saving by preventing people from walking into a sticky situation, or allowing them to keep an eye on a nearby fire to make sure it does not have potential to spread to their residence.
The Citizen App blog tells a story of a Philadelphia resident who was alerted to a fire near his dwelling:
Before hearing sirens, smelling smoke, or seeing flames, Citizen user ‘petz215’ received a notification.
Citizen user ‘petz215’ was getting ready to leave his South Philadelphia home for a dentist appointment on November 18th when he received the Citizen notification above.
“If there were a house fire that close to me, I would definitely already know about it,” he thought. “Sure enough, I stepped outside to see a raging fire.”
He canceled his appointment to monitor the fire and make sure it didn’t spread closer to his house.
The fire destroyed the house where it sparked and affected two neighboring homes.
“I was astonished. Not only did I find out about this nearby fire with a push notification, but there was already a live video of something that started minutes ago. I couldn’t believe how fast it happened.”
From Blog: https://medium.com/citizen/south-philly-resident-alerted-to-fire-on-his-own-block-b9dbcdca8e35
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In the few weeks I've had the app installed, I've been alerted to various incidents happening nearby including building fires, car accidents, and gunshots fired. The app tells me exactly how far away a situation is from my location, down to several hundred feet. I’m able to add friends and family to my "inner circle" to get alerts about potential situations unfolding near their real-time location as well.
If there is a dangerous situation occurring near you, it's better to be an informed citizen than not.
Download the app here: