>You described finding out there was an armed suspect hiding out in your neighborhood, but there is no way on earth Citizen should be how you find that out:
Im not a fearful person, so I am looking for utility and data. I am also the worlds foremost expert on my opinions and experiences, so I can tell you what happened, not the other way around.
In the case of the suspect hiding in our neighborhood, our block was swarmed by cops but nobody notified us what was going on. We checked citizen and other scanners to find out what was happening and found out. This let us take practical precautions like locking the front, back, and side doors to the house- which we normally keep open.
In the case of the shopping center, I didnt use the app and was driving around the parking lot. Saw about 20 cops and asked a bystander what was going on and I got the fuck out of there. I got the full details 24 hours later from searching the news- a high speed chase had led to the shopping center and the suspect fled inside. In this case, a notification would have been really helpful.
Those are the most extreme examples. Much more common is seeing something like the bay bridge being stopped and being able to pull up pictures from the people stuck in traffic. I have used that to determine if it is something like a semi on its side or a flat tire and plan my day accordingly.
I haven't used the app in a while, because like I said, the UI is crappy. I do live near a higher crime area and frequently hear gunshots. I'm thinking about going back to the app because I would like to know how often these are real incidents requiring medical response versus people just "having fun".
I have read the city crime reports and used their crime database, but it is very delayed and has a terrible UI itself.
I guess my comment assumes a certain level of awareness
Like if I see my block swarmed by cops, I'll lock my door.
If I see 20 cops outside the mall, I'll take it as a sign to not even approach bystanders.
If traffic is blocked, even Google Maps will show the trip time taking into account if a semi flipped across 3 lanes or a stranded vehicle is blocking 1 lane.
If you hear gunshots so close you start thinking "I wish I knew why those just happened" instead I prefer staying indoors and away from windows since bullets don't care if they were shot for fun.
If you have the awareness to respond to the plainly available context, then you don't benefit from having a police scanner in your pocket.
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No one is saying you're not allowed to find things out about crime, the problem at its root is a live crime feed precludes any sort of meaningful deep information.
Police act on so little info because it's their job, and as a result they end up being jumpy and trigger happy.
Willingly opting into that experience yourself in anything short of a warzone is not hard to chalk up to fear...
It seems that you are proposing being even more fearful and taking a more conservative approach due to lack of information. If I followed your advice, I would never leave the house for fear bullets.
If I want more detailed information on a bridge shutdown (which is available), your recommendation is to suck it and just go by whatever erroneous prediction google gives.
It seems like you providing contradictory advice:
1) Always take the most cautious approach to your environment. (if you see cops:hide, hear shots: hide)
2) Don't pay attention to the live crime feed for more information.
The problem is that the live crime feed adds meaningful information to the environmental data for me.
I guess we disagree on what information I find useful: Whether that is the nature of a traffic jam so I can plan my drive, or how often people get shot in my neighborhood.
This strikes me as a position hostile to information, knowledge, and learning.
Again, there I go making crazy assumptions like "You don't have a constant barrage of bullets outside so you can go outside most of the time, just not right after hearing gunshots, regardless of what a crowd sourced app tells you" and "it's not every day you see 20 cops milling outside your door" (pro tip: lock your doors if either is true)
> It seems like you providing contradictory advice:
There's nothing contradictory: I'm advocating for common sense telling you when to be fearful, rather than relying on an app to tell you when to not be fearful.
Because when said app is literally a police scanner, your default is fearful and you'll essentially be asking for an app to tell you when everything is ok. That's no way to live.
>Because when said app is literally a police scanner, your default is fearful and you'll essentially be asking for an app to tell you when everything is ok. That's no way to live.
I probably shouldn't respond, but I can't help it. Do you just go through life telling people how they feel and contradicting them when they say they feel otherwise? I said I wasn't fearful, and gave numerous examples of not being fearful, yet you still assert that I am.
If you can't wrap your head around the idea that someone might want to collect information and make informed decisions without being some kind of paranoid, there's nothing that I can do to change your mind. If you can't see the simple value in knowing which streets people frequently are shot at, then I can't help you.
Im not a fearful person, so I am looking for utility and data. I am also the worlds foremost expert on my opinions and experiences, so I can tell you what happened, not the other way around.
In the case of the suspect hiding in our neighborhood, our block was swarmed by cops but nobody notified us what was going on. We checked citizen and other scanners to find out what was happening and found out. This let us take practical precautions like locking the front, back, and side doors to the house- which we normally keep open.
In the case of the shopping center, I didnt use the app and was driving around the parking lot. Saw about 20 cops and asked a bystander what was going on and I got the fuck out of there. I got the full details 24 hours later from searching the news- a high speed chase had led to the shopping center and the suspect fled inside. In this case, a notification would have been really helpful.
Those are the most extreme examples. Much more common is seeing something like the bay bridge being stopped and being able to pull up pictures from the people stuck in traffic. I have used that to determine if it is something like a semi on its side or a flat tire and plan my day accordingly.
I haven't used the app in a while, because like I said, the UI is crappy. I do live near a higher crime area and frequently hear gunshots. I'm thinking about going back to the app because I would like to know how often these are real incidents requiring medical response versus people just "having fun".
I have read the city crime reports and used their crime database, but it is very delayed and has a terrible UI itself.