About a month ago, a friend suggested and I installed an app called Citizen on my iPhone. In case you haven't heard of it, here's what it does. It monitors things like police calls and 911 calls and it shows you where there are things like fires or "police activity" or reports of cars being stolen or home break-ins within an X-mile radius of your location. Right now, for instance, it's alerting me to "Report of Man With Gun" 3.3 miles from my home.
Many of the reports aren't from scanners. Anyone with the Citizen app on their phone can report an incident and even take photos or video of it that will appear on the little on-screen map of all who have that location within their radius. One such Citizen-using citizen is shooting live video of an overturned car 3.2 miles away in another direction. And one of the many things I've learned from Citizen is how many traffic accidents result in overturned cars. It shows me a lot of fender-benders or worse…but it seems like at least once a day, there's an overturned car within a few miles of me.
Like I said, I've had it about a month and I don't know how I feel about it. To some extent, it's like the way you can't avoid looking when you drive past a car collision or a fire. But if you have it on your phone, it keeps showing you these things whether you want to know about them or not. I turned off the array of weird sound effects it emits — like helicopter sounds when there's a helicopter anywhere in that radius — and that's helped make it less of a distraction.
But it's still a distraction just being there. Also, it's one thing to be aware that there is crime in your area. It's another to be alerted to every report of robbery or violence or someone armed with something and to be told exactly how close it was to you.
I am aware that many such reports turn out to be exaggerations — or just plain nothing — but Citizen never tells you when that's the case. A well-meaning neighbor once reported a suspicious-looking person entering my house and when the police arrived, I had to prove it was me. That "Man With Gun" 3.3 miles from me might be a false alarm and "Police Activity in Your Area" might be a bunch of cops converging on McDonald's for their new Crispy Chicken Sandwich…but Citizen ain't gonna tell me that.
Then again, sometimes Citizen gives me useful information. I was five minutes from leaving my house the other day when I got a report that a major traffic accident had closed off the boulevard I intended to drive on. Good to know. And if you live in a city, there are probably times when you see a copter hovering nearby and you'd like to know what the hell is going on there. Citizen often tells you.
Then again, it sometimes doesn't. Last week, a homeless encampment about six blocks from me went up in flames. I could see the smoke in the distance. I could turn on my TV and see live video from helicopters overhead from local stations. But for some reason, Citizen had nothing about the fire or the choppers. (I think they only report police helicopters.)
And it just told me that a lost dog was found on W. 118th Street, which is 9.8 miles from me. I don't think I needed to know that, especially since I never knew that particular dog was missing.
I keep deciding to take Citizen off my phone, then I keep deciding to leave it on my phone. Usually, when I decide I'm better off without it, a report will suddenly come in that seems useful…so I don't know. If you decide because of this piece to give it a try, I accept no responsibility if you find yourself in the same quandary.