Citizen: Local Safety Alerts 12+

I’ve had this app for a couple of years now, and I really enjoyed it previously. Unfortunately, every single time I open this app now, I’m bombarded with subscription notices. If you are not paying for this app, you can’t really get access to much of anything. Some alerts are free, but many alerts require a paid subscription to even see what the incident is. On the incidents which are free, if you listen or watch any of the videos some stop midway and tell you that you cannot finish the recording unless you upgrade your subscription. What’s the point of having a “free app,” if I then have to pay to find out what the incident is? I might as well not have the app! Other problems with the application is the false alerts and unmonitored comments. The comments most of the time are rude; which often range between blaming the homeless or victims in incidences. There’s no monitoring comments… beside the “don’t be rude“ warning you get when opening the chat box. There’s a number of alerts that come through that aren’t verified. Verified alerts are part of the subscription, so you very likely will get false alerts. This app relies heavily on its users as it’s sources, yet turns around and makes you pay for the content they aren’t paying for themselves. For a free application that was meant to let citizens know of major incidents happening around them for their safety, it sure feels like they have prioritized their own pockets before the users.

I liked that if I heard sirens I could open up the app to see what was going on. However, recently the app has been updated to basically reduce the amount of local information that’s brought to users. Before the update, I could scroll through a long list of incidents in the area and see dozens of dots throughout my community. Now I only see a handful of incidents in my local area. There is a long list of trending incidents such as… a mudslide in Beverly Hills? An incident in the Bronx? Both of which are several hundred miles away from me?? I don’t understand why the list of “trending incidents” from cities that aren’t even remotely close to my own is longer than the list of incidents in my own city, or why I can even see those incidents in the first place. If I was connected to people who live in those cities, maybe that would make sense, but I don’t really care about a two-vehicle collision that happened on an interstate in Chicago. If it’s significant enough, I’ll see it in the news.

If they change the app back to the way it was, it would be really helpful if there was a way to sort the list of incidents, such as by most recent or by proximity. The list of incidents didn’t seem to be in any particular order and you’d have to comb through them to find what was happening in the last few minutes versus incidents that occurred several hours ago.

I’ve had this app for a few years now, and I really enjoyed it previously. Unfortunately, every single time I open this app now, I'm bombarded with subscription notices. If you are not paying for this app, you can't really get access to much of anything. Some alerts are free, but many alerts require a paid subscription to even see what the incident is. On the incidents which are free, if you listen or watch any of the videos some stop midway and tell you that you cannot finish the recording unless you upgrade your subscription. What's the point of having a "free app," if I then have to pay to find out what the incident is? I might as well not have the app! Other problems with the application is the false alerts and unmonitored comments. The comments most of the time are rude; which often range between blaming the homeless or victims in incidences. There's no monitoring comments... beside the "don't be rude" warning you get when opening the chat box.
There's a number of alerts that come through that aren't verified. Verified alerts are part of the subscription, so you very likely will get false alerts. This app relies heavily on its users as it's sources, yet turns around and makes you pay for the content they aren't paying for themselves. For a free application that was meant to let citizens know of major incidents happening around them for their safety, it sure feels like they have prioritized their own pockets before the users.