![]() Citizen also encourages users to comment on and record footage of crime and safety incidents that happen nearby. The vast majority of updates on Citizen come from employees who monitor various publicly available police and fire department transmissions and then post select incidents on the app and notify nearby users. It’s currently available in New York City, the San Francisco Bay Area, Baltimore, Los Angeles, and Philadelphia. Since then, Citizen has been criticized for fear-mongering, among other things, though the app’ footprint has continued to grow. The first iteration of the app launched in 2016 with the mission to “open up the 911 system” so that “everyone can do their part.” Many, including the New York Police Department, argued at the time that the app encouraged vigilante justice - it was literally called Vigilante - and it relaunched in 2017 as Citizen. Usage among protesters would also represent a bit of an evolution for Citizen. However, police have become wary of scanners in recent years, and some departments are migrating over to encrypted communication technology.Ĭitizen is not a police scanner app, per se, but it can serve a similar purpose. They also more easily pull together law enforcement transmissions from a wider variety of sources and locations. People have long used police scanner hardware to follow crime, but this new generation of apps brings that technology to more lay users. Police scanners as well as Citizen offer a way for protesters to stay ahead of planned police action and to understand in real time what police are up to. People are likely using these apps in a number of ways, including but not limited to tracking or participating in protests. ![]() App AnnieĪpptopia also reports that the top five police scanner app downloads rose by 125 percent this past weekend compared to the weekend prior. Signal was the eighth most downloaded social networking app on Tuesday, and ranked around the top 100 for apps overall. Earlier this week, Citizen was the fourth most downloaded iOS app of any kind, according to App Annie. ![]() ![]() Both are continuing to set daily download records. Since May 25, Citizen has been downloaded 234,000 times, and Signal has been downloaded 121,000 times in the US, according to Apptopia. Meanwhile, earlier this week, Twitter was being downloaded more than Facebook and Instagram, which normally isn’t the case. They’ve also rushed to download Signal, a secure messaging app, and Citizen, a community safety app that sends out police alerts. The list of most popular apps right now offers a glimpse into how people are using technology to take action.Īfter the killing of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer last week, people have flocked in record numbers to police scanner apps, where they can listen in on law enforcement’s radio communication. As protests against police brutality have swept across the United States, Americans’ app downloads have shifted. ![]()
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