Citizen reportedly plans to check a personal safety partnership in Chicago

Crime reporting app Citizen has reportedly deliberate a partnership with personal safety outfit Securitas in Chicago. A report from Motherboard, citing a number of nameless sources, suggests Citizen stays considering providing safety companies regardless of ongoing considerations about its app.

According to Motherboard, the Chicago Securitas partnership would “function as a check-in service” for customers. Securitas might comply with up after somebody reported a break-in to ensure they’re all proper, for example, or a person might schedule a Securitas go to by Citizen. Citizen already provides a subscription emergency response service referred to as Protect, however it consists of voice or video calls with an agent who can contact conventional emergency companies, not a full-fledged safety power.

Citizen has trialed personal safety partnerships earlier than, nonetheless. The firm dispatched Citizen-branded vehicles in Los Angeles in 2021, and a Motherboard report detailed plans for an on-demand safety power. Citizen confirmed that it had run a “small 30-day trial” of the service however had “no plans to launch our own private security force,” though it didn’t strictly deny that it might rent a agency like Securitas sooner or later. That mentioned, Motherboard’s description of the brand new program is extra restrained than the choices specified by its earlier plans — the place it described one thing extra akin to a personal police different that would reply to an energetic disaster.

Services like Securitas clearly aren’t new. But Citizen — whose core service includes letting customers see close by reported close by crimes and different emergencies — has drawn criticism for encouraging paranoia and even vigilante manhunts by a bounty in a single arson case. More broadly, it’s half of a bigger development of promoting specialised companies by client apps.

While a Citizen consultant didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark from The Verge, the corporate informed Motherboard that “we’re always exploring product features and partnerships that can help keep Citizen users and our communities safer.” The report doesn’t provide a possible timeline for the alleged partnership.