How Smart-Apps Can Improve LatAm Citizen Security David Gagne - Insight Crime
go to original December 19, 2014

A new smartphone application from Brazil maps where various types of crimes occurred and offers users the safest route home, in just one example of how the technology provided by mobile devices is being used to improve citizen security in Latin America.

The application, called Smaps, allows users to report where crimes - ranging from murder and kidnapping to vandalism - are taking place in real time, and notifies other registered users of the update. Using this shared information database, the app can map out the safest route to a given user's final destination, and can also identify the nearest police station (see video below).

Although Smaps was developed in Brazil, it can be used internationally. The app currently has the largest amount of data on major cities like Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, according to O Globo. The app's developer, Douglas Roque, reportedly plans to expand the site's database by including publicly available crime information from local government sources in addition to civilian-reported crimes.

Smaps is just one smartphone application aimed at improving citizen security in Brazil. The “CopCast” app, part of the Smart Policing initiative developed by Brazilian think tank the Igarape Institute, allows senior police officials to monitor officers on patrol using an interactive, real time map. CopCast can also store videos from police body cameras for up to 90 days.

Read the rest at Insight Crime

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