This analysis describes version 0.1314.0 of the app (the version number recorded inside the package we inspected), analyzed 2026-10-18 . The app may have changed since.

The store currently lists version 0.1314.0, updated 2026-10-14.

The app has been updated since this analysis. The findings on this page describe version 0.1314.0, not the version now listed on the store.

The developer’s release notes for the newer versions, where we hold them, are in Versions and dates analysed.

Preview

Store screenshots supplied by the developer.

About this app

Citizen is the essential safety app for today's world, providing real-time safety alerts, live incident videos, and 24/7 emergency assistance to keep you and your loved ones safe. Stay informed about nearby crimes, natural disasters, fires, protests, and more with instant alerts directly on your phone.

Whether you’re at home or on the go, Citizen’s location-based alerts instantly notify you of potentially dangerous situations like property crimes, vehicle pursuits, robberies, active shooter incidents, hurricanes, wildfires, and more. Find out why police helicopters or fire trucks are in your area and avoid danger before it strikes.

Please note that Citizen may notify you of a crime in progress before the police respond. It's meant to protect you and your community — please use it responsibly.

Key Features:…

From the developer’s store description.

For developers and the curious

The full report

The evidence, sources, measurements and versions behind every label above.

Findings and evidence

3 published · 2 shown, not confirmed

Context 1

Facts that add context without being a charge.

Asks for more sensitive permissions than similar apps

Measured

Requests 7 sensitive permissions (ACCESS_BACKGROUND_LOCATION, ACCESS_COARSE_LOCATION, ACCESS_FINE_LOCATION, CAMERA, READ_CONTACTS, READ_EXTERNAL_STORAGE, RECORD_AUDIO); the median for 48 scanned apps in News & Magazines is 2

Sources: The app manifest
Agreement: A measured fact from one deterministic, checkable source.
Where measured: Found in the Android app’s package

Definition

The package requests substantially more of the device's sensitive permissions than the typical app in its category. This is a measurement, not an accusation: a permission is granted because a feature needs it, and a wide request list is a reason to look rather than a finding on its own.

Package artefact

sha256:bece96757fb53f502aa50ac42f99d1a5bcdd063a36c2a14a8f101819be2df53e

Positives 2

Specific evidence of a useful property, within the stated scope.

Developer says data deletion can be requested

Measured

The developer's store data-safety disclosure states that data deletion can be requested; we have not seen a deletion control in the app's own text

Sources: The store listing
Agreement: A measured fact from one deterministic, checkable source.
Where measured: From the Google Play listing

Definition

The developer's data-safety disclosure on the store states that users can request deletion of their data, or the app's own text offers a way to delete the account. This restates what the developer declares; it is not a test of whether deletion works. Apple publishes no equivalent disclosure, so on an Apple-only listing only the app's own text can support it.

Open evidence

No advertising SDKs

Measured

No advertising or mediation SDK among the 8 SDKs detected in the package

Sources: SDKs in the app package
Agreement: A measured fact from one deterministic, checkable source.
Where measured: Found in the Android app’s package

Definition

No advertising or mediation SDK of any kind was found in the package.

Package artefact

sha256:bece96757fb53f502aa50ac42f99d1a5bcdd063a36c2a14a8f101819be2df53e

One source only — shown, not confirmed 2

Open observations that have not cleared the evidence bar.

Upgrade prompts use guilt-trip wording

One source only

Constant upsell pressure: raised by 7 distinct reviewers (1.4% of 507 reviews scanned)

Sources: User reviews
Agreement: Only one kind of source so far. Shown, not counted.
Where measured: From Google Play reviews

This observation has not cleared the required evidence standard.

Definition

Declining an upgrade is written as a loss ('No thanks, I don't want to improve'), or users report being repeatedly pushed to subscribe during normal use.

Open evidence

Paywall blocks the basics

One source only

Paywall blocks the basics: raised by 25 distinct reviewers (4.9% of 507 reviews scanned)

Sources: User reviews
Agreement: Only one kind of source so far. Shown, not counted.
Where measured: From Google Play reviews

This observation has not cleared the required evidence standard.

Definition

The core of the app — not extras — sits behind payment, or previously-free function moved behind a paywall.

Open evidence

Nothing was published as a thing to watch for in this assessment. That is not a finding that nothing is wrong with the app.

What reviewers report

507 reviews read · 2 review-based observations

507 reviews read for this analysis. Each observation keeps the sample and store it was based on.

Upgrade prompts use guilt-trip wording

Shown, not confirmed

Overall a decent app. But the absolutely insane amount of push notifications to pay an absolutely insane membership fee completely ruins the helpfulness of this app. Here's an idea, don't try to rake customers over the coals in fees. I'll…
1★ · Google Play · 2026-05-21

cant really do much of anything or view anything without subscribing. every little thing you click on wants you to subscribe. just use crimerader, not as accurate about all the calls but at least its free and doesnt hound you to subscribe.
1★ · Google Play · 2026-08-07

Constant notifications that are consistently urging me to pay for the subscription. It gets really annoying because I can't mute the app, or else I won't receive notifications for actual alerts.
2★ · Google Play · 2026-10-01

Paywall blocks the basics

Shown, not confirmed

How can such a useful app turn into such a cluttered mess. I really found this useful until they changed the design. Now it's such a cluttered mess it's difficult to find reports in my own area. I tried the paid version and it's…
1★ · Google Play · 2026-08-19

This used to be a great App until it was revamped no longer user friendly plus way too dark. Now with the scond update the free version is just about useless and they pay version is outrageously priced. I understand that some features…
2★ · Google Play · 2026-08-31

this app REALLY SUCKS now!! paywall 4 everything. 5/21/23If this is streamlining your app!? fake news or news thousands of miles away. nothing local in days. then to click on each notification next to the bell with the red dot before it…
1★ · Google Play · 2026-08-20

A sampled review illustrates one person’s experience. It does not establish a finding on its own.

Measurements

8 measured · 0 not assessed

Supporting measurements. They are not a complete list of possible harms or positives. “Not assessed” means we could not measure it — never zero, never a pass.

From store data and reviews

Developer replies to reviews

Replies to fewer than 1 review in 20

Price in the store description

States no price and billing period

Cancelling, in the store description

Does not say how to cancel

Themes reported by reviewers

2 themes reported

Counted from the reviews we have read for this app. "No theme reported" means no theme reached our reporting threshold — it is not a finding that nothing is wrong with this app, and we do not say it is.

Five-star share of ratings

65–79% five-star

Arithmetic on the stores' own published rating counts. It says nothing about why the ratings fall where they do.

In the app package we scanned

Android package 0.1314.0, scanned 18 Oct 2026. These describe that package, not the current store version.

Sensitive permissions

6 or more requested

Counted against a fixed list of eighteen sensitive Android permissions: sixteen runtime permissions, among them location, camera, microphone, contacts and SMS, and two the user must switch on in system settings, drawing over other apps and usage access. Requesting one is not itself a finding.

Analytics or tracking SDKs in the scanned package

1–2 found

Advertising SDKs in the scanned package

None found

Counted as distinct SDKs in the package we scanned. One mediation bundle can contribute several, so this is not a count of advertisers.

Measurement vocabulary 1.4 · how these are measured

Versions and dates analysed

Assessed 18 Oct 2026

This analysis describes version 0.1314.0 of the app (the version number recorded inside the package we inspected), analyzed 2026-10-18 . The app may have changed since.

The store currently lists version 0.1314.0, updated 2026-10-14.

The app has been updated since this analysis. The findings on this page describe version 0.1314.0, not the version now listed on the store.

Release notes for the newer versions, in the developer’s own words:

Version 0.1314.0 · 2026-10-14

No release notes were provided for this version.

Store update history

Each store’s release notes, as the developer wrote them. They are the developer’s words, not ours.

Google Play

Version 0.1314.0 · 2026-10-14

No release notes were provided for this version.

Version 0.1312.0 · 2026-09-29

No release notes were provided for this version.

Assessment record

Status: Automated analysis
App identifier: citizen-google-sp0n-citizen
Assessment date: 18 Oct 2026
Sources used: 6 independent signals: user reviews, SDKs in the app package, the app's own on-screen text, the app manifest, the store listing and the store privacy disclosure
Reviews read: 507
Package examined: Android · 0.1314.0 · scanned 18 Oct 2026
Measurement vocabulary: 1.4
Human inspection: Not completed

Assessed 2026-10-18 from 507 user reviews, the app's package, the store listing and its privacy label.

How this page was produced

Analyzed 2026-10-18 Version analyzed: 0.1314.06 independent signals507 reviews scannedConfidence: HighNot human-reviewedVocabulary v1.13Methodology v1.3

Signals run: user reviews, SDKs in the app package, the app's own on-screen text, the app manifest, the store listing and the store privacy disclosure.

Store facts

Google Play

What the stores publish. Store ratings are the stores’ numbers, not Appworthy’s, and are never averaged across stores.

Google Play

Store rating: 4.53 ★ · 112,205 ratings
Version: 0.1314.0
Updated: 14 Oct 2026
Price: Free · In-app purchases
Age rating: 12+
Size: Not supplied

Open in Google Play

Developer: Sp0n Inc.
Category: Lifestyle
Listing price: Free · In-app purchases

Purchases the store lists

What this app sells

Google Play doesn’t publish per-purchase prices, so this list covers the other store only.

Method and limits

What this report can and cannot show

How the automated analysis works

This assessment is produced automatically. Six independent signals are read — user reviews, SDKs in the app package, the app's own on-screen text, the app manifest, the store listing and the store privacy disclosure — and each candidate finding is filed under the sources that support it.

No charge stands on one kind of evidence — with one published exception. A finding is either a measured fact that anyone can reproduce (an ad SDK is in the package; every subscription bills weekly; the privacy label omits a tracker we can see), or it is an interpretation — and an interpretation needs independent sources to agree before it reaches the catch list. The exception is a harm only users can see: a charge may publish from reviews alone, as “Reported by N users”, once enough reviewers raise it to clear that charge’s own published bar. That agreement rule is what replaced the human reviewer, not a model’s confidence.

There is no overall score, on purpose. A 0–99 number was published here until 2026-09-15. It was withdrawn because it discriminated too weakly to be the instrument — 44.7% of every pair of apps tied — and because a single number is a verdict where a count is an observation. What publishes instead is a row of measurements, each of which says what was counted and, where we could not look, says that instead.

Findings under One source only are real reports we do not stand behind as findings. They are shown because withholding them entirely would hide a genuine complaint, and labelled because publishing them as charges would be an accusation off a single source.

Limits of this report

A package scan is static. It identifies code and text in one Android build. It does not measure a live ad session, test a deletion request, or count the steps needed to cancel.
Reviews keep their sample. A review-only charge shows distinct reviewers, the share and the sample size, and is published only once it clears that label’s published threshold. Calibration labels are machine-drafted and not yet confirmed by a person.
Not assessed is a state. It is never a zero and never a pass.
A missing label is not a clean bill of health. It means the evidence did not support one, not that the app is problem-free.

Not yet human-reviewed. A hands-on test can confirm or contradict a finding and adds its own measurements; it does not change a measurement row. Hands-on inspections are not yet open.

Review thresholds Read the methodology For developers

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