A mobile app that provides users with real-time alerts about crimes and other emergency situations in their immediate surroundings will launch in Baltimore on Wednesday, CEO Andrew Frame said.
Called Citizen, the venture-funded app employs teams of analysts to collect publicly available information — such as police scanner chatter — to push out notifications to users within a certain radius of incidents.
“We’re all about empowering people and giving them situational awareness for their safety,” Frame said.
The app began in New York City several years ago and is also now available in San Francisco. Frame says 10 percent of residents in New York — or more than 800,000 people — have downloaded the app, but declined to provide specific user figures there or in California.