App Called, 'Vigilante' Launched to Open Up 911 System and Promote, Well, Vigilantism Charles Costa - SnapMunk
go to original November 14, 2016

Introducing Vigilante: Can injustice survive transparency? (Vigilante)

There are significantly more citizens than there are police. The limited size of many departments means there’s only so many resources to respond to emergencies. Although there have been other tamer tech attempts to simplify civil participation and support, they don’t do much to help with real-time emergencies. They have also taken less disruptive approaches, encouraging everyone to be a “concerned citizens” rather than a crime-stopping vigilante.

In New York City, there are 34,500 police officers who serve over 8 million people. Despite the high population, the closed nature of the 911 system means only 0.5% of the population knows about crimes when they’re reported. “Can injustice survive transparency?” That’s the question posed by Vigilante, an app designed to alert users when crimes occur near them.

In theory, this means users can gather information in real-time to help the police, and possibly step in to help save victims. In practice, however, it’s an application that potentially encourages mob justice, and in some cases, can even lead to more innocent, unequipped people being killed.

The team behind Vigilante monitors police scanners and other sources for real-time crime information - there is no direct integration with the official 911 system. From there, when an incident occurs, an alert is sent to Vigilante users with locations and details. They can choose to go to the scene and “help,” perhaps by broadcast video, posting updates that are shared across the user base, or maybe throwing a few karate chops.

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