Mayor Eric Adams announced over the weekend that New York City will send users real-time public safety alerts based on their specific location through the crime-tracking app Citizen. The city also announced that public safety agencies, like the New York City Police Department, Fire Department, and Emergency Management, will have access to a portal to review footage shared by users on Citizen.
Citizen’s verified partner program for cities like New York is tied to a partnership with Axon’s (formerly known as Taser) Fusus platform, the “real-time crime center” it acquired last year. Axon announced a partnership with Ring in April that allows law enforcement to request access to video footage from owners’ security cameras in a certain area during a certain time. At the same time, it also announced an integration with Citizen to support sending alerts and pulling in public videos from Citizen’s users. According to Citizen, users who don’t want their videos shared directly can opt out in the app’s settings, but all videos posted are still “viewable and downloadable by the public.”
Adams said the new NYC Public Safety account on Citizen will send notifications about public safety, weather emergencies, and major incidents based on a user’s neighborhood, ZIP code, or borough.
Citizen lets users report potential safety incidents, share videos, and broadcast live footage from within its app. It also says it can send alerts to nearby mobile devices “within seconds” of a 911 call or a user report, and also offers a premium safety line.
Citizen already allows law enforcement to obtain information from its app as long as they have a warrant, but it also offers the ability for police to get data “without delay” in case of emergencies. It originally launched under the name “Vigilante” in 2016, but the app was booted from the App Store for promoting vigilantism, TechCrunch reported at the time. The app later relaunched as Citizen and has faced heavy criticism in the years since, with some arguing it fuels fear in communities. In 2021, Citizen CEO Andrew Frame came under fire for encouraging users to hunt down the wrong person suspected of starting a California wildfire.