AUSTIN (KXAN) — At 2 p.m. Thursday, the Austin Police Department will unveil its new app for smartphones.
Atlas One, an Austin-based company, designed the smartphone app that allows law enforcement to send location-based community engagement messages, alerts about incidents in the user’s area and other announcements.
Interim Police Chief Joseph Chacon, along with Atlas One CEO Kushyar Kasraie and VP Jamieson Johnson, will take part in the news conference.
The app doesn’t require users to provide exact location. They can pick out their neighborhood or nearby landmarks/buildings to build the app’s geofence, and 911 reports also filter directly into the map. Some have expressed concerns with that feature, however, as some calls show as “unverified” reports of various crimes.
The company’s app is also being used by a police department in Charlotte, North Carolina, and it cost them about $150,000 to implement it. The price tag for APD is not yet known.
We will stream the news conference in this story and on Facebook.
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