Citizen Acquires Harbor: Expanding into Disaster Preparedness

Citizen Acquires Disaster Preparedness App Harbor

Citizen, the widely discussed crime watch application, has announced its acquisition of Harbor, a technology company specializing in disaster preparedness. This marks Citizen’s inaugural acquisition, although the financial details of the transaction remain undisclosed.

Statement from Citizen’s CEO

According to a press release, Andrew Frame, founder and CEO of Citizen, stated that a comprehensive transformation of public safety necessitates a robust team and a diverse product portfolio to facilitate their global objectives. He expressed enthusiasm regarding the acquisition of Harbor, highlighting its technology, products, and personnel.

Citizen’s Current Operations

The company currently operates in 60 U.S. cities, distributing over 20 million alerts daily. These alerts are compiled from publicly available 911 data and subsequently verified by Citizen staff. Previously, users could directly submit incident reports to Citizen; however, the platform now directs individuals to contact 911 for emergency situations.

About Harbor and its Approach

Harbor, having secured $5 million in seed funding approximately a year and a half ago, employs a gamified approach to crisis preparation, focusing on events such as fires and earthquakes. Launched in October 2020, the application initially requests a user’s ZIP code.

Following this, Harbor identifies the most probable disasters for that specific location, a feature some may find unsettling. The app breaks down preparedness into manageable weekly tasks.

Harbor’s Task-Based System

Rather than presenting users with an overwhelming list of emergency preparations, Harbor offers tasks that require only a few minutes to complete. Initial tasks might involve verifying smoke detector functionality or assembling a go-bag. Subsequently, users are encouraged to undertake more extensive safety measures, such as CPR training.

Leadership Transition

Dan Kessler, the CEO of Harbor, will be joining Citizen as chief business officer. He conveyed his satisfaction with his team’s integration into Citizen and its overarching mission to enhance global safety. Kessler anticipates significant collaborative efforts in advancing mobile safety technology.

Expanding Citizen’s Safety Features

This acquisition allows Citizen to broaden its safety offerings beyond real-time incident alerts, which have sometimes been a source of anxiety for users. Citizen recently introduced Protect, a subscription service priced at $20 per month.

Protect provides users with direct access to a Citizen agent when they feel unsafe but prefer not to contact emergency services. Citizen reports that Protect currently has a user base of 100,000.

Citizen’s History and Controversies

With a current user base of 10 million, Citizen has faced several controversies since its inception. Originally known as Vigilante, the app was removed from the App Store in 2016 for promoting activities that could potentially lead to harm.

The initial version of the app encouraged citizens to collectively address crime, a concept that raised concerns. Furthermore, Citizen has been criticized for offering a $30,000 reward for information regarding a suspected arsonist who was later found to be innocent.

The company also faced scrutiny for attempting to deploy private security personnel to investigate reported crime scenes.