By Mike Rutledge
NKyTribune Correspondent
Fort Thomas has started using a new app that will let smart-phone users send in photos, videos and crime tips, and also lets the police department send them advisories, such as streets that will be closed because of crashes or fireworks.
“We are one of only a very few agencies in the country that are really using this app right now,” said Fort Thomas Detective Adam Noe. “It was something that was brought to our attention by a neighboring agency.
“Dayton, Ky., has been using it for I think about six months now. They’ve had a lot of success with it.”
Noe added: “We were looking for a way to get in touch with the public, and have that interaction between ourselves and the public. I think this app’s going to do that for us.”
“Hopefully it’s going to help our investigation side by getting some tips, and help our patrol as well, getting tips for things on a daily basis that might go unnoticed, if we didn’t have that,” Noe said.
The app, called SentiGuard, can be downloaded free from the Apple app store or Google Play, and works on all Apple and Android phones. To find it, go to the apps section of either store and search for SentiGuard, whose logo is a blue shield with a castle’s turret.
“It’s pretty user-friendly to walk you through,” Noe said. “There’s a main screen that has a live video stream, which is not up and running at this point, but will be, once we get all the bugs worked out. That means they can send us a live video stream to the office here for us to look at a later date, or if someone’s on the computer, they can look at it live-time, with what they’re recording, in the event that the crime’s occurring at that point in time.”
Otherwise, the program saves the video or images at the police department, where officers can use it later, to identify suspects or use it as evidence in court.
Noe urges people to shoot videos or photos only when they can do so without endangering themselves.
It also lets people submit crime tips using their name, or if desired, with absolute anonymity thanks to state-of-the-art encryption technology.
Police can send notifications to all the app users who have signed up to receive the notifications. Fort Thomas used that option last week, to notify residents about fireworks – and parade- related road closures.
“The company has generously given us basically 12 months to try out their services free of charge, and we’ll re-evaluate several months down the road here to see if it’s beneficial to us or not,” Noe said. “I think it can be, if people use it. And that’s why we’re trying to get information out there, so people can download it, hopefully start sending us some information on some stuff.”
Fort Thomas doesn’t have much violent crime, “but we do have our fair share of burglaries, thefts and criminal mischief,” such as vandalism, Noe said. “We come to find out, when we do our investigations, people see things, but sometimes may not know how to report it, may be scared to report it. Maybe they don’t think it’s important enough. I’ve heard that one a lot.”
“It’s been great,” said Dayton Police Clerk Cassie Bartel, who says her city has used the app about seven months. “We get lots of tips,” including about drug activity, juveniles violating curfew, and other possible criminal activity.
“We’ve gotten a lot of drug activity tips that have been used as far as places to watch,” Bartel said.
Noe said when Fort Thomas officers visit neighbors after crimes, such as burglary sprees, they often hear: “I didn’t think anything was really wrong, but I thought something seemed weird,” Noe said. “A lot of times people don’t know something happened. If they start talking to their neighbor, and the neighbor says, ‘Somebody broke into my house the other night,’ then they’re like, ‘Oh, it’s funny you say that, because I saw a white van rolling down the street the other night at 2 o’clock in the morning, and it had two dudes in it. I saw them get out, but I really didn’t think anything of it….’”
Another thing police hear a lot, that frustrates them: “I didn’t really want to call 911, because I didn’t want to bother anybody, because I didn’t think it was that big of a deal.”
After all, you know your neighborhood, and what seems unusual.
“Maybe if we had a unit close and they had called, we could have intercepted somebody,” Noe said, “or at least got their information – stopped them, identified (the suspects).”
By the way, police would much rather be “bothered” by such tips via 911, and stop crimes in progress, than arrive at work the next day to learn several houses in a block had been burglarized. Noe urges people to call 911 with such tips when there is any suspicion that a crime may be afoot.
Here’s an important message about the app: “We don’t want people reporting emergencies on here. This is not for something that is going to require an immediate response. That is not what this is for, because it is not going to be monitored 24 hours a day.”
Officers will get updates when tips are sent in, but they may not be able to immediately access the information, Noe said. “If there is an emergency, we would still request that you call 911.”
The app is more for things, such as barking dogs, where police can respond a day or two later.
Christopher Born is a retired police officer with 38 years of law enforcement experience in Illinois and Florida, and works for Optivon Inc., selling licenses for the app to law enforcement agencies. Born said when he heard about the app, “it pretty much blew me away, because it is the only mobile app available for law enforcement to directly communicate with live, streaming video and audio, and text-message capabilities back and forth to the law-enforcement agency.”
Born notes communities have spent millions on video surveillance cameras. But this app lets citizens “report live incidents to you that are there and captured at the police department,” Born said. “You engage the community to work together with the police – a very positive step.”
“At the same time, they can send confidential tips on corruption, or anything else that may be going on,” Born said.
“Let’s say, God forbid, someone in your family got abducted,” Born said. “And we had a case going back years ago down in Florida where the young lady, had she had this app, all she had to do was turn on the live, steaming video and it would record anything she was saying and would be tracking her, where she was at (via GPS).”
The woman in question was sexually assaulted and killed. She had tried communicating with police via cell phone, but officers weren’t able to determine her exact location.
“Since then, the technology has changed,” and officers would be able to more closely determine her location than back then, Born said. “But I turn around and it still gives goosebumps to me to think if this can save somebody’s life….”
A program Optivon developed for the U.S. Coast Guard already has saved lives by providing latitudes and longitudes of endangered boats and ships. And anonymous tips provided through SentiGuard are truly confidential, with all identifying information stripped from the message as it is sent, Born said.
“This is one of those things that we felt we needed to do to stay in touch with the public,” Noe said. “We were kind of lagging behind in technology a little bit. It’s got the potential to be very successful, I think.”
Fort Thomas residents with questions about the app can contact Det. Noe at the department, 859-261-1471.