False arrest, racial profiling: Why the Citizen app is a threat to vulnerable communities
The app that’s marketed as a tool for making communities safer has led to harassment—and at least one innocent person getting picked up by cops.
Policing and police violence are at the forefront of public conversation. Some in the tech industry think they can help transform policing with apps, but the results have so far been disastrous, especially with the Citizen app. In essence, Citizen encourages people to take the law into their own hands. It was once called Vigilante. Yes, Vigilante. And its backers didn’t give up when it was booted from Apple’s App Store for encouraging anyone who uses it to take often dangerous matters into their own hands (in other words, vigilantism). They just changed its name to Citizen.