There's no question that the Brazilian city of Rio de Janeiro is one of the world's great urban settlements and tourist destinations, but the city does have a reputation for inordinate levels of gun violence, which is precisely why entrepreneur Benito Quintanilha has gone ahead and created an innovative new crime app that informs people about the occurrence of shooting incidents so that they can avoid getting caught in the crossfire.
The app, dubbed "Onde tem Tirotejo" (which is Portuguese for "Where There's a Shootout"), allows users to receive alerts about gun violence via a variety of social media platforms including Facebook, Twitter and Telegram. The group uses trusted informants around the city to verify incidents in order to avoid false alarms and needless panic.
This crime app shows that smartphone technology can be leveraged to transmit emergency information in ways that traditional forms of communication simply cannot match.
Key Themes Behind This Trend
- Crime Alert Apps
- Creating apps that provide timely information on crime incidents can help people avoid dangerous situations.
- Social Media Integration
- Integrating social media platforms into apps can increase reach and user engagement.
- Crowdsourcing Data
- Crowdsourcing can be used to gather reliable and timely data on crime incidents.
Where This Applies
- Mobile App Development
- Developing crime alert apps can be a lucrative opportunity for mobile app developers.
- Social Media Platforms
- Social media platforms can explore integrating crime alert features to make their platforms safer and more user-friendly.
- Security and Surveillance Sector
- Companies in the security and surveillance sector can explore using crowdsourced data to provide more accurate crime information and situational awareness to their clients.
