Citizen’s new premium Defend service is like your personal 911 dispatch

Would you pay a subscription for the neighborhood watch app Citizen?

On Tuesday, the controversial cell app which lets customers report on native crime and different incidents introduced a $19.99 premium service referred to as Citizen Defend that provides 24/7 entry to “extremely skilled security specialists.”

The premium Defend service, which is now obtainable for iOS, started testing earlier this yr with practically 100,00zero beta customers. One new characteristic that significantly stands out permits the corporate to observe your smartphone audio utilizing AI-powered expertise.

The Citizen Defend service is designed to offer prospects with a stay, human security knowledgeable on-demand. The corporate is selling this as a technique to have “peace of thoughts whenever you’re alone” or a technique to name for assist in conditions the place a buyer wouldn’t or couldn’t name 911.

Citizen’s security specialists may then ship emergency responders on to a Citizen Defend buyer’s location or direct them to a spot the place they might be protected, notify members of the family of an incident, and alert different customers within the space.

“Citizen has been a one-way system thus far. We offer real-time situational consciousness and our customers can determine what to do with it,” stated Citizen CEO Andrew Body in an announcement emailed to Mashable. “Beginning immediately, Citizen is now a two-way system the place customers can request assist from Citizen.”

Citizen Defend comes with a “Get Agent” button which a person merely faucets to connect with a security knowledgeable. Clients may work together with the agent through video name, voice chat, or textual content message, which Citizen says may be useful when a buyer must be discreet.

Premium options additionally embrace “Defend Mode.” When this mode is turned on, customers can select to allow “Shake for Agent” and “Misery Detection.” Shake for Agent works precisely the way it sounds: Customers can shake their telephone twice to attach on to a Citizen agent.

Misery Detection is a mode which permits Citizen’s AI-technology to observe audio by way of your telephone. If it detects a “misery sign,” corresponding to a scream, the app will ask if you wish to be linked to an agent. A person will then have 10 seconds to reply, at which level they will be routinely linked to a stay agent in case of an emergency state of affairs.

Credit score: citizen

As anybody can report incidents on the app, false info discovered on Citizen has beforehand been used to fear-monger inside neighborhood messaging apps and native Fb Teams.

A current report from Motherboard uncovered that Citizen was testing out on-demand personal safety providers. These privatized “emergency responders” had been even seen within the subject whereas patrolling Los Angeles.

Citizen was additionally just lately roundly criticized following an incident the place its CEO Andrew Body provided a $30,00zero reward for anybody who may discover alleged arsonists stated to be behind wildfires in California. The CEO even included {a photograph} of the suspect. Nonetheless, Body quickly needed to apologize because it turned out the person he’d put a bounty on was the improper man.

It is unclear whether or not a market exists for such a paid service, particularly given the corporate’s troubled historical past.