By: Serach Nissim
A controversial neighborhood watch mobile app is hiring New Yorkers to livestream crime scenes and other public emergencies. The personal safety network, Citizen, is now using the pitch: Want to make $200 a day in New York City? Rush to the scene of a murder, a three-alarm fire or a traffic accident, use your phone to record the incident and earn $25 an hour. The app hopes to encourage regular people who are in the right place at the right time to do their filming.
The app, which is now available in 30 cities, including NYC, the San Francisco Bay Area, Baltimore, Los Angeles, Philadelphia and Chicago, was developed by sp0n, Inc. It alerts users with location-based real-time safety alerts, news updates and live videos. Citizen employees monitor 911 communications using radio antennas, to create the alerts. The app reportedly has over seven million active users. Originally named Vigilante when it came out in 2016, the app had been criticized as being an enabler of mob justice.
As reported by the NY Post, Citizen has raised $133 million from high-profile supporters including the co-founder of PayPal, Billionaire Peter Thiel, as well as venture firms Sequoia Capital and Greycroft. The company saves money on reporting because a majority of its videos and alerts come from volunteers. Now the app is also quietly recruiting “field team members” to run around the city chasing emergencies.
On Thursday , a since-deleted job posting was put onto JournalismJobs.com, seeking “field team members” to work for a “tech company with user-generated content.” “You will be live-streaming from your phone straight to the app, covering the event as news,” read the job listing posted by third-party agent Flyover Entertainment. “In the event that witnesses, police officials or other parties to interview are available, you must take the initiative to interview them for app viewers,” the listing added. As per the listing, NY field team members could make $200 per day for eight-hour shifts, and in Los Angeles 10-hour shifts were offered $250 per day. Citizen did not add its name to the job listing, nor did it list the job on its own website.
A citizen spokeswomen responded to the Post’s inquiry last week saying that Citizen doesn’t hide its use of paid field team members. “Citizen has teams in place in some of the cities where the app is available to demonstrate how the platform works, and to model responsible broadcasting practices in situations when events are unfolding in real time,” the spokeswoman said.
