Citizen, a neighborhood crime-watch app, offered $30,000 to its users to find a suspected arsonist via live video. However, they were wrong. A mob of civilians was sent after the wrong man. Citizen now hires journalists to livestream crime scenes on its app for $25 an hour via third-party websites. I'm tired.Citizen, originally known as Vigilante, was first released in the App Store in 2016. It promoted itself as an app to fight injustice and transparency. However, in practice it encouraged users to find crime scenes to report them. Vigilante was removed by the App Store because it violated an Apple App Developer Review Guidelines clause that said that an app should not be likely to cause any physical harm.This was certain to be the end of the platform's infancy. The app continued to run, much like a cockroach in the face of an apocalypse. The app rebranded itself as Citizen and added disclaimers about who should intervene in crime scenes. It also reentered App Store and raised more VC funding. The app acts as a crowd-sourced crime blotter. According to its App Store page, Citizen can notify you of a crime in process before the police respond. It also has the potential to make users feel unsafe. Although the app pulls data directly from 911 calls, not all dispatches are checked. This can lead to false concerns.Citizen cannot function without enough users, so its efforts to recruit civilians to the app have become increasingly desperate. SensorTower reports that the app reached a record monthly download in June 2020 in the wake widespread Black Lives Matter protests. So, in protest of police brutality, 677,000 people downloaded a policing application. The app was downloaded by only 207,000 people the month after. The app has seen a slowdown in growth since then. In March 2020, 292,000 people downloaded Citizen, while 283,000 downloaded it in March 2021.The Daily Dot reported in June that Landon, an app user, was livestreaming from several crime scenes at once. He was trying to interview witnesses and first responders. Given how frequently he found these crime scenes, it seems unlikely that he is just an avid user of the app. Yesterday, the New York Post published a story about Chris, a Citizen user who streamed live from six emergency situations in one day. Citizen confirmed that Chris and Landon were both part of the app's Street Team.Citizen has teams set up in cities where the app can be used to show how it works and to teach responsible broadcasting techniques in situations when live events unfold. A Citizen spokesperson stated that these teams would help our users broadcast in an efficient, helpful, and safe manner.Citizen has had Street Teams ever since the apps launched; a spokesperson stated that they have never tried to conceal this fact. These jobs are not on the Citizen website. They were instead listed by Flyover Entertainment, a third-party recruiter on the JournalismJobs Board without mentioning Citizen. A similar listing was shared by NYU Journalism, which included the Citizen name. TechCrunch was informed by Citizen that these listings were for the apps Street Team. Citizen charges $250 per day in LA for a 10-hour shift, and $200 per daily in NYC for an 8-hour shift. This works out to $25 per the hour.Broadcast journalists are familiar with broadcasting safely and responsibly. Citizen spokesperson said that this is a requirement for Street Team members. The spokesperson explained that Citizen wanted journalists to fill these positions and why they were placed on third-party job boards. It could, however, also find journalists through its website.Local news is in decline, but Citizen isn't built to replace neighborhood journalism. Citizen sends reporters to crime scenes, which is not unusual. Local newspapers also report on crime. There is a big difference between reporting on news and livestreaming from crime scenes via a surveillance app. The app only discloses who is a civilian and who is a worker when asked directly. These covert job postings are not transparent for an app that is focused on transparency. 25 dollars an hour is quite high for a freelance job that does not offer benefits or time off, and requires broadcasting skills.Citizens' latest effort at growth is Protect, a $19.99 per month paid service that lets users send their location as well as a live stream from their camera to a Protect agent. Citizen claims that its Protect Agents are former 911 operators and law enforcement officers, which can send an immediate emergency response in the event of an emergency. This is a way to pay for a personal 911 operator. It feels like an expensive alternative to police, which is already a poor system.Perhaps Silicon Valley-bred tech companies won't be the solution to America's centuries-old problems with police brutality and racial profiling. Perhaps a better way of reducing crime is to make sure that everyone has access to affordable housing, health care, and jobs. We may never know!
