Digital Commons Network^™

Citizen Empowerment As A Police Force Multiplier: Reproducing Social Domination Through A 21st Century Personal Safety App, Justin Turner, Travis Milburn

Faculty Publications—Sociology and Anthropology

Citizen is a digital mapping platform and personal safety app that boasts over 10 million users in the United States. Through the platform, users can report crimes, map safe routes, or rely on the app’s other functions to protect themselves from dangerous situations. Sold on a promise of empowerment, Citizen markets itself as a 21st century technology capable of repairing the ills of our social world. In this article we analyze how Citizen taps into the desire for control and safety and urges its users to actively protect their own communities. As such, we suggest that while surveillant in nature, …