Citizen, the self-described crime-fighting app has launched a premium service for $20 per month that lets you do something that you can do for free.AdvertisementIts regular platform is a public safety system that sends push alerts to inform users of emergency-related incidents in their locality (car crashes, fires, etc). It has now launched Protect, a paid service. This subscription gives you 24/7 access and personalized protection from Citizens highly-trained Protect Agents. They sound very much like the typical 911 dispatcher. However, there are some tweaks.Protect is essentially a customer support suite that allows subscribers to be connected to an agent. If the algorithm detects the sound of you screaming, it will connect to an agent. According to the company, it works like this:Our AI-powered technology monitors your audio and identifies trouble sounds, such as screams. If a distress signal is detected, you will be asked whether you would like to be connected with an agent. If you don't respond in 10 seconds, you will be connected automatically just in case you are experiencing an emergency.The company also offers a text-only option that can be used when a caller does not wish to be seen calling 911. The following are examples from a Citizen spokesperson:Protect has been used in many situations. Protect can be used for someone who is nervous about walking home alone, is feeling unsafe, or just getting into a rideshare late at nights.According to Citizen, the company is launching its new service after having tested it with almost 100,000 beta users. It claims it wants to supplement, not replace, existing emergency response services. Citizen may try to convince Americans it is trying to keep everyone safe, but its strange history and apparent ironic desire to be a part of an overly surveillance future that none of us want to live in are too difficult to overlook.It was launched in 2016 under the name Vigilante. The app's business model required users to record and upload videos of horrible things in their neighborhood (fires or shootings). The company was rebranded and received a significant cash injection. It has had a constant mission to aggressively grow in every way it can, often coming up with bizarre and new services but then retracing its steps. For instance, it recently announced plansand then subsequently scrapped themto send on-demand security teams to app users neighborhoods, a kind of Uber-meets-Blackwater thing that seemed like a really bad idea. It was discovered that Citizen had been paying app users to play Jake Gyllenhaals' Nightcrawler character, and then deputizing them into a pseudo broadcast journalism clique to capture footage from local carnage. This is a sign of potential interest in the local news markets.AdvertisementIt is not clear, however, how useful Citizens core public security feature really is, despite all the corporate growth. It doesn't sound very good, according to some user reviews. George G, a Los Angeles resident in his 2019 YouTube review, stated that the app was not for him. It bombards you with this information. Many 911 calls are just plain stupid. This app will not allow you to have your phone ring continuously telling you about a shooting or a crash 10 miles away (which, if you are in Los Angeles, is literally on another planet).
