Our App Introduces Crowdsourcing to Geofenced Notifications

The term crowdsourcing, the process of obtaining needed information or contributions from a large group of people, and especially from an online community, rather than using traditional methods found it's place in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary somewhere between 2005 and 2006. The very clear origin, known as a portmanteau, comes from the words 'crowd' and 'sourcing'.

A Geofence is a virtual perimeter for a real-world geographic area. A geo-fence could be dynamically generated—as in a radius around a point location, or a geo-fence can be a predefined set of boundaries (such as school zones or neighborhood boundaries).

The See Something, Send Something app utilizes BOTH technologies to: -Notify citizens of criminal activity, the need for information, a potential hazard or to make them aware of an event;

-Count the number of notifications received by a smart device in real-time to document, measure and analyze notification efforts;

-Gather evidence, tips and leads on Geofence Notification or a part of proactive citizen empowerment

We have added the ability for the 'tipster' to talk with law enforcement in real-time to gather additional information. The 'tipster' can communicate through anonymous or self-identified means, directly through the app and with confidence they are being heard.

While there are several apps on the market that notify citizens via text, social media or based on their neighborhood, the See Something, Send Something app is focused app, built for law enforcement and continues to incorporate the newest technology with intuitive features.

In BETA testing are two additional features that increase communications and the necessity for proactive citizen involvement-

-As with many missing children investigations, citizens have reported seeing a child with a person or persons and something 'just didn't seem right'. They didn't remember any missing children fliers or images that stood out and therefore did not take action. -Our plan is to empower citizens to use the app, take a picture if possible and submit the suspicious situation. In the background, through a relationship with organizations like MCIC and NCMEC, we plan to compare those images to known photos of missing children. Should we find a match, <strong>we immediately alert law enforcement.

-While our app is primarily to notify citizens of dangers, the need to pass information to law enforcement based on their location is a necessity as well.

-Our plan is to develop law enforcement specific notifications that pass on location-based details about crime trends, access key codes, fire alarm panels and more.