Citizen: Local Safety Alerts

John Dombeck

1 year ago

Pretty useless app. It keeps bothering me with notices from over 10 miles away in the big city I live near, and nothing at all in my own area, even when I'm looking at 2 fir trucks, 7 squads, and 2 ambulances. Plus when you get a notification it takes about 15 seconds to ipen the app, and then you need to click on the map icon an wait several more seconds to figure out if it's anything that might affect you. Tried it for several months, but it's more annoying than useful. Deleting it.

Valeriex lee

1 year ago

I was using this app for safety reasons, I don't live in the best area of my city, and it was nice knowing where to avoid on my way to and from. Now that it's no longer free, a lot of people in my area stopped using it to the point where you only see major news stories, lost pets, and sex offenders nearby. Anything older than a few hours you have to pay to view, and the app shoves the premium feature option in your face every time you press on something.

Shawn Rivera

1 year ago

Paid subscription had made the app essentially unusable. It is crazy that to turn OFF notifications for things I need to subscribe? No thanks. Citizen was originally great for local alerts but now it defaults far away which are useless. I would have even been happy with a $5 or even $20 one-time fee to access, not a subscription. I understand people need to be hired for the top tier however that seems like a feature 10% asked for which killed 90% of the user base. Good idea, bad business move.

Kai Lie

1 year ago

I used to depend on this application to provide me with comprehensive updates on the incidents happening in my neighborhood. However, my satisfaction with the app changed when it transitioned to a paid subscription model. This change made me uncomfortable, and as a result, I discontinued using the app because it seemed unreasonable to be charged for access to crucial local information.

Jennifer Sanderson

1 year ago

Loved this app!!! Until now 😡 I get notifications for a crime or accident that happened more than 24 hours ago, then I need to "unlock" information by paying for the premium subscription!!! Used to get alerts instantly, but now they're just trying to force me to pay for the app!! I'll just delete it if it's not going to be both free and useful.

Cleo V

1 year ago

It use to be better, but now everything is about trying to get you to pay for the subscription version. At least before the free version wasn't perfect, but gave One the sense that they could still use the app to be warned about the dangers that were around them without needing to be highway robbed by some app.

C S

1 year ago

This app is turning into a joke. When I zoom out to see what should be the current or recent calls it showing me old old stuff. When I click it to see what's going on it us blurred out trying to convince me to pay to see old events. More than half of these events are over 2 years ago! I thought there was a shooting down the street because it was on the map, but it was from 2.5 years ago! And majority of the videos are useless, it is just people wanting attention.

Shaun

1 year ago

Installed to see what's happening right now in my neighborhood. It asked for my location, I said "just for now" since it's a one time use. Then it kicked it back twice trying to allow me to share my precise location at all times. Then after several pages of junk it asked me to pay $20. No. Just no. $20 after running me through the hoops of a junk UI?!

R. Hawke

1 year ago

While it does give you reports, most of the details are blocked behind a paywall now. There is an add in every single posting to upgrade to premium. Otherwise, you get maybe 5 seconds of the 911 calls or other reports if you dont have it. It is the most frustrating type of advertisement that just makes the total functionality of the app a pain. I delete it as soon as I get the update that I need if local crime pages haven't posted it yet.

Ryan Pickering

1 year ago

The UI is clunky, the paid options are $5/mo and $20/mo and without paying you get notifications well after an event occurred. They are charging a lot of money to stroke people's fear and in a gwanky UI. Not worth the hard drive space. Needs to be cheaper or vastly improved upon to justify what they give you in the paid version

Kevin Costello

1 year ago

What used to be a somewhat useful tool for monitoring the happenings in your neighborhood has become a downloadable ad for their premium service. The default notifications, which cannot be configured, invite you to access things locked behind a paywall, and your "local feed" updates inconsistently, if at all. Also, most of the people commenting on the app are unhinged lunatics, but that's not really the app's fault, and more a reflection of where I live, heh.

Shawn M

1 year ago

This app is so NEEDY and over-designed it's crazy. I wanted to check a helicopter overhead and got several banners to enable notifications, a highlighted past incident that requires Plus to view, a warning about 57 offenders in my area (also needs Plus), and prompts to add home, work, or school address. Half of the map is covered by a window for crime reports (another Plus feature) that can't be minimized. Every aspect of its design is meant to invoke fear so you subscribe to Plus. No thanks.

Aaron Petry

1 year ago

Positive: the app shows real time alerts of traffic, crime, fire and safety warnings nearby and at locations you specify. Negative: there's no search ability at all, very little filtering. You also see a lot of old data,so next to an alert about a call for someone who had a car accident an hour ago, you'll see an alert about a shooting from 364 days ago. To be able to search and filter to see what's happening would be useful and give a more realistic view of public safety in your town.

Kimmy C

1 year ago

Not worth using anymore. Can't get detailed info without the paid version. Not about our safety anymore only the profit! What happened to the FREE VERSION? I found it, I had to fight through the ads of trying to get me to go premium. Why pay when so many people are posting nonsense videos. It just gets annoying! Quit the popups... I'm not paying for something that started out free!

Paul Burkhart

1 year ago

Used to be fantastic, the go-to app for pretty much everyone I know to have an awareness of their area. It was simple, clean, informative. Now it's busy, buggy, confusing, spammy, a little sleazy in how it promotes their premium version, and so many previously basic features are behind paywalls. I get they have to monetize, but good lord, this is NOT the way to do it. A MAJOR course correction is in order for this app to be worth downloading.

Roy Nwaisser

1 year ago

Update 2: It's getting worse! Update: A year+ later and zero improvement. UI is still inexplicably awful. Wish they'd fix it because idea behind the app is great but execution makes it unsable. Few apps I've ever used have had such a poor user interface as this. They should totally scrap this design and start from scratch using a more competent UI team. Also, you can't limit notifications without paying, you either get everything or nothing. Most features are behind a pay wall. Total money grab.

J Alv

1 year ago

Trash. Inconsistent Alerts. I have premium version on Android & Free version on my iphone. Free version gives more relevant & frequent alert & more consistent. GPS is slow to update on paid version(droid). Not sure why that is. I should be getting better results off the paid version. As of now, I will not be renewing my subscription. For the price I'm not happy with it. Tech support is slow to respond. Have a ticket open for 3 mo. Still not update to my issues. Trash!!!