Herndon native and chief executive officer of CrimePush, Shayan Pahlevani, is considering donating the CrimePush app, which allows users to discretely report crime, to the Herndon Police Department.
The app is free to download, but police departments, colleges and other schools typically pay to have it customized for their purposes. CrimePush also receives funding from state grants and from investors.
Pahlevani, a Capitol Hill resident, got the idea for the app after having his car broken into twice and being robbed at gunpoint. He then began working with his brother Eman Pahlevani and Samier Mansur with the goal of empowering people by creating a user-friendly way of contacting the police.
“So, the three of us—it was our brainchild—came up with the app together and left our day jobs to do this full time and try to do some good,” Pahlevani said.
The app lets users report crimes by selecting from categories such as vandalism and sexual harassment and writing a message that will be sent to their police department’s email. The app also uses a GPS to send the police the location the message was sent from.
CrimePush also has the ability to record audio and video or take pictures of crimes as a means of providing evidence for the police.
“If there’s a video of an altercation happening, they might respond quicker,” Pahlevani said.
Emails sent by CrimePush are checked during regular business hours and are not intended to replace 911 in case of emergency.
In addition to reporting crime, the app also has “check in,” “distress” and “safety box” features, which were launched July 10 with the CrimePush beta.
The check in feature allows users to select from a list of messages to send to their emergency contacts, letting them know if the user has arrived somewhere safely.
The distress option allows users to either select a preset message or one of their own to send to their emergency and medical contacts and to their Facebook page.
The safety box contains a map of your GPS location, a list of numbers for organizations such as poison control and the National Domestic Violence Hotline and converts a phone’s flash into a beam for use as a flashlight.
Pahlevani said they are also developing a “police dashboard,” which will allow the police to run filters and searches on reports as well as record various data on crime, such as time of year and location, that could help to better predict crime patterns.
“All those analytics can really tell a powerful story and ultimately cut back on crime by allowing police to have better resources to fight it,” Mansur said.
CrimePush’s northern Virginia partnerships include Heritage High School in Loudoun County and the Arlington Police Department.
Heritage has been testing a pilot version of its app, CrimePush Heritage for fall, when the service will be made available to all Loudoun middle schools and high schools.
CrimePush is available for download from iTunes, Google Play and the Android market.