Citizen: Local Safety Alerts

They need someone to moderate this more. An Xmas parade is not an incident, to be marked by red. Police blocking off the road for an event is not cause for alarm. What is cause for alarm is when there’s a “woman exposing herself” type event and there’s like 10 comments of people being overly sexual saying they wish they didn’t miss it, people threatening others and cussing up a storm. Also it hinders the app when people post these grainy blurry smudged videos of the aftermath where they can’t hold the phone upright, obviously not a developer issue but it’s nonetheless an issue that takes away from the app. Like you’re warning me about someone with a loaded gun but you’re showing me a blurry video of you waving the phone around in the darkness and you’re yelling into the mic. It’s basically 2020 and people still don’t know how to use a phone. The idea is good and this is still useful but those issues are major.

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I’ve allowed this app access to my location while the app is running, not always. It used to be fine with this: I continued to get alerts for things that happened in the place I last opened the app (which is what I want - I look at recent crime near home, from home, but not near work or from work, 20 miles away). The app had a little notice at the bottom of the screen asking me to change my location setting, but it didn't take up much space or interfere with my use of the app. Recently, the app is becoming more and more obnoxious about asking me to change its location access. It’s notable that the developer has evolved the “give me your location always!” screens to be more frequent, cover more of the screen, and be less easily dismissed. As of this version, it covers the whole screen and a dismiss icon only shows up after the notice has been on screen several seconds. Other than that major impediment to usability, I like the app. I live in the city and appreciate knowing where and when crime has been happening lately. I do wish the default radius were something I could configure, but that’s not a huge problem.

Great concept. Two issues need to be addressed: 1) The developers need to enable “filtering of events” so that the map only shows events from the time frame the user designates. For example, you should be able to filter for events that have occurred in the past 24hrs. Or even events that have occurred over the past 2hrs. Or even a map that shows only events that have been reported within the past 30 minutes... 2) In baltimore we frequently get reports of carjackings etc that are 10 hrs off from the the time that it actually occured. The app states that “carjacking was reported on june 6” but does not report the time that the carjacking actually was called in to 911, or even the time that the victim states it occurred. Instead, it gives a time many hours later.

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UPDATE: The always-on location requirement has become even more intrusive (ie you can't use the app without allowing always-on location access). One star and deleted. ====== Woulda been a 5-star review but the app just started prompting for always-on location access EVERY time you open the app. Not cool. Annoying enough that I'm now considering deleting an app that I tend to check on a daily basis. EDIT: The developer was kind enough to respond to my review clarifying that they do indeed perform the action that I've claimed is intrusive and annoying. But it's ok because they promise to protect my privacy in the process. "Hi there, Citizen's mission has always been to keep people informed and protected by using technology responsibly. We ask that you enable your location settings so that Citizen can work in the background, even when you're not using the app, to send you real-time, sometimes life-saving crime and safety alerts. We understand some users are concerned about their privacy when sharing their location data. We can assure you that Citizen protects all user data by storing as little as necessary to run our safety network. We encrypt all data and connections. And we will never share or sell user data to third parties. If your settings aren't properly configured, you will see a reminder to update them. You can dismiss that modal to continue into the app, but it will appear again the next time you open Citizen."

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I live in a major US city and used to use this app when I saw or heard activity nearby so I could get more info about what was happening while staying a healthy and safe distance away. I had it set to only track my location when I opened the app since that was when I needed it. Now when I try to open the app it shows me a fake alert about “four gunman” nearby and demands I change my settings to allow it to ALWAYS track my location even when the app is closed. It literally won’t let me use the app unless I do this. Well I won’t and I am uninstalling it and you shouldn’t install it in the first place. That is shady and a horrible tactless way to try and get me to give them my personal data. Given all the active shooter situations in the US in the past couple years, the fake alert is exploitative and low. Don’t use this app, don’t give them your data.