Is the NYPD working on a system similar to the Citizen app to alert the public to crimes?

Could the NYPD be working on its own Citizens-type app that would alert the public — and everyone from bodega workers to cab drivers — in real time when a crime occurs? It could be.

The Citizen smartphone app already does that, based on 911 reports, while posting videos of crime scenes, fires and other emergencies that users shoot as the situation unfolds.

The NYPD and the mayor’s IT departments are working to “build out our system to communicate with our neighborhoods,” department head Jeffrey Maddrey said at the end of a recent news conference, without giving specifics on what the system will entail. .

Maddrey was speaking toward the end of a news conference where cops revealed they had captured the so-called hazmat killer, who was involved in a six-day three-borough crime spree that included an Upper East Side deli slaying in March. 3, as well as robberies at a Brooklyn deli and a bagel shop, and another robbery at a Bronx deli just minutes after killing a deli worker at 81st and Third Ave in a botched robbery. The first robbery in Brooklyn happened on February 25, six days before the murder on the UES.

The suspect was wearing white protective clothing in all four incidents, but cops initially did not connect all four robberies to the same person.

Maddrey said there needs to be a faster way to alert businesses, bodegas, taxi drivers and the general public about crimes in progress.

“When this first robbery happened, the detective agency put out a wanted poster to ask for information, but we are aware that we need to develop our ability to communicate with our neighborhoods, our stores, our bodega, our taxis. drivers more efficiently and frankly faster,” said Maddrey.

“We are currently working with our ITB department, the mayor’s ITB office, to build a communication system where community members, the bodega association, and taxi drivers can communicate with the department and with each other.”

“So if a robbery like this happens,” he continued, “they can put it out immediately and say that a robbery happened in this place, be careful, here’s the description, they notified the police.”

He added that work is already underway on the project. “We’ve tried to build this in order to increase communication, to be able to respond more quickly to these crimes, and to get as much information as possible as they happen.”

While the Citizen app has been praised for providing instant updates on crime and emergencies in the user’s immediate vicinity, it has also been criticized because some of the comments can encourage paranoia or racism, and sometimes the incidents turn out to be completely unfounded.

Maddrey provided some details on exactly what the system is that the NYPD and the mayor’s office are trying to build, or if there is some sort of timetable. “We will work on this road until the end,” he said. He added that it “requires us to send information through the media that will help expedite information and apprehend suspects more quickly.”