iPhone apps help track sex offenders, spot crime

[TheLegacy]

http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/09/29/...ime/index.html

NN) -- Tracy Rodriguez of Houston, Texas, is not a trained private investigator or police officer. But with a gentle tap on her iPhone screen, the mother of three can access information revealing the sex offenders who live within a 10-mile radius of where her children practice sports or watch movies.

The information, provided by an iPhone app called Offender Locator, helps Rodriguez make more informed choices, she says. When the app pops open on her phone, there is an eerie sketch of a man's face. Then, the app asks for an address.

"I am constantly worrying about the well-being of my family," says Rodriguez, who uses the app several times daily. "You can't be too careful."

Since the iPhone launched more than two years ago, a handful of crime-fighting tools have emerged among the thousands of innovative apps. They give ordinary citizens the capability to sleuth and guard themselves against crime. Users can conduct a background check during a dinner date or avoid walking through a high-crime area.

The Offender Locator app has been downloaded more than a million times, breaking into the top 10 most popular apps list on iTunes when it made its debut in June.

Some BlackBerry models and Google's Android also offer crime-fighting apps. And the app industry is bound to grow, which probably means more inventive tools to fight crime. The Yankee Group Research Inc., a company with expertise in global connectivity, estimates U.S. smartphone app downloads will reel in $4.2 billion in revenue by 2013.

For the past decade, law enforcement agencies have relied on e-mail and texting to interact with the public. Now, iPhone apps are expanding their reach by allowing people to access information wherever they are, as long as they have cell phone service.

In February, the FBI worked with NIC Inc., a contractor that develops Web pages for the government, to construct an app that provides updates of the 10 most wanted fugitives and terrorists. So far, there have been more 541,000 downloads in 170 countries since the app was released in February



In Montgomery County, Maryland, police are worried about PhantomALERT, an iPhone app expected to be released in the next few months that warns drivers about DUI checkpoints. To use this app, invented by Joe Scott, the user downloads information from the company's Web site that specifies where checkpoints, red-light cameras and speeding traps are. For about $10 a month, the phone will send out an audio alert to the driver to help dodge tickets.

"That is a risk to public safety, allowing a potentially impaired driver to avoid detection and possibly harm him or herself or someone else on the roadway," says Lucille Baur, a spokeswoman for the police department.

But Baur admits the app's ability to warn drivers about red lights or speeding zones could help drivers slow down.

A few weeks ago in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, an iPhone helped a robbery victim retaliate. Robbers snatched the victim's wallet, credit cards and iPhone, which was equipped with a global positioning function.

Using a computer, the victim was able to trace his phone to a nearby Walmart, and then to a restaurant. It wasn't long before police detained the suspects at a gas station and recovered the stolen items.

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The other side of the coin is now I can see some person sitting there and seeing this as a perfect opportunity to "clean up the mess" by hunting these people down and killing them