Citizen app coming to Pittsburgh, draws controvery

PITTSBURGH — The Citizen app is a crowdsourced public safety app that’s been around for nearly a decade in other major cities. Pittsburgh gets added to the app June 20. Its creators say Citizen’s mission is to make things safer, but some fear it could do the opposite.

“Your job as a citizen is to step away,” said Beth Pittinger, executive director of Pittsburgh’s Citizen Police Review Board. “Get out of the way. Don’t create a situation where you could be hurt, other innocent civilians could be hurt, and the police officers could be hurt.”

Pittinger says she has concerns about the Citizen app coming to Pittsburgh.

Pittinger added, “This whole notion that somehow this is empowering. It’s undermining our public safety system, and if we need to change aspects of that, then we should do it together as a community through the proper channels.”

A Citizen spokeswoman says its goal is to make the world a safer place by keeping people informed by compiling critical public safety incidents from police, fire, EMS and more.

Curtis Krauth of Mount Washington said, “There is definitely something that needs to be done about how most of the communities feel about the lack of care the city has shown and our voice as well as much as we feel it should be.”

Citizen then takes information ranging from missing persons and pets to extreme weather and provides the information to app users for free.

Grace Cortez of Mount Washington said, “Honestly the quickest place I get information from right now is Facebook, which is not always the most reliable or fastest way to get information, so I feel like having an app where you can just get notifications, especially if you could get it specifically for your area, would be super helpful.”

Two paid versions of the app unlock an extra layer of safety features, including the ability to listen to police and fire radios and access a sex offender map. The premium service also includes a paid personal safety service that provides 24/7 access to Citizen’s agents whenever a user feels unsafe but isn’t sure whether it rises to the level of calling 911.

Pittinger says her concern is that it could encourage inappropriate use and exploit people’s biases.

“For the police, they determine if someone is suspicious and should be intervened with,” Pittinger said. “Not you or me, not a citizen who says, oh, I’m going to say that person’s suspicious. That’s a violation of people’s rights and it can also lead to profiling.”

In response to its critics, Citizen said: “Citizen believes that hiding what’s happening in your community doesn’t mean that it isn’t happening. Our goal is to be transparent so that people understand what is happening around them.”

Citizen also says it values partnership with all emergency service providers and wants to work closely with them. Pittsburgh police say they have not been in contact with the company.

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