33 employees were let go by Citizen on Wednesday. According to the Citizen website, Citizen is a personal safety network that allows users to defend themselves and the people and places they value. Real-time 911 notifications, immediate assistance from crisis responders, and safety monitoring for friends and family are available through the app.
A spokesperson for Citizen said, “We are grateful to all of our departing team members for their contributions to Citizen and are committed to supporting them through this transition with a generous severance package that includes accelerated option vesting and extended exercise window, six months of COBRA payments, career services support and other benefits.”
A laid-off worker informed that at least 10 engineers were fired. However, Citizen did not specify which departments within the business were affected. Citizen notifies users of verified incidents in their neighbourhood using public police blotters. Still, users can also contribute their own reports of suspicious activity and live streams from crime sites. The software, formerly named Vigilante when released in 2016, was initially prohibited from the App Store due to vigilantism concerns.
Data from the app analytics company SensorTower shows that since Citizen was released, consumers have spent around $30.3 million and downloaded the app over 14 million times. Early in 2021, the private company completed a $73 million Series C investment transaction that included a $23 million convertible note.
Another neighbourhood social app, Nextdoor, has demonstrated similar problems. Both Citizen and Nextdoor have been criticized for creating a culture of surveillance that encourages racial profiling and harassment. But the CEO of the business provided the most extreme illustration of these risks. In 2021, while live-streaming on the Citizen app, Andrew Frame offered users $30,000 to find an alleged arsonist.
Service called “Protect” was introduced by Citizen
On a live feed, he posted a picture of the suspect that received 800,000 views. But it turned out he had the wrong person. According to a Motherboard report on the incident, Frame viewed this as a sophisticated marketing opportunity for the app’s streaming function.
A service called Protect was introduced by the crime reporting app later that year. Users can connect with a “protect agent” who can connect them with first responders or police for $20 per month.
However, detractors have questioned if Citizen’s alerts do more to create panic and fear than to keep people safe, and that fear can persuade people to pay for access to their security agent.
SensorTower shows that when Protect was released, in-app purchases on Citizen rose 17% yearly. However, Citizen’s app received an average monthly spend of $1.4 million in 2022. The amount which is insufficient to generate a profit for the business.
