Officials insist the iWatch app is not a replacement for calling 9-1-1. But they say it gives people another, anonymous avenue for reporting things that seem out of place, or to share possible leads in investigations.
Dan Elliott, whose company developed iWatch, explains in a press conference that the app allows users to send a text message to Cleveland police dispatcher and to the Northeast Ohio Regional Fusion Center, which is where local and federal law enforcement gather information.
"And it can be forwarded in as little as eight seconds to the smartphone of a patrol officer or an investigative resource," Elliott says. "They see the tip on their phone as a text message, they log into the dashboard, and they see only the parts of the tips and the location of those reporting areas or patrol areas that they're responsible for.”
Elliott says users can opt out of sending police their location.
Cuyahoga County Executive Ed FitzGerald says he thinks granting app users anonymity will make them feel more comfortable sharing things they otherwise might have kept to themselves.
“It’s not just with criminal complaints," FitzGerald says. "It’s building code complaints, it’s barking dog complaints. It’s – there’s always a reticence of folks to get involved in what they think might be other people’s business. Do I think this will help with this? Yeah, I do.”
For its part, the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio questions what police at the fusion center will do with this information. A spokesman says the group is concerned that a flood of wrong tips could get innocent people in trouble.
“It's good for people to report real criminal activity," the ACLU's Nick Worner says. "But I think there’s a concern about what kind of information we’re going to be getting, and certainly about where it’s going to be going.”
