What is Citizen's endgame here? Do they want to be some vigilante justice group? A private army? Protection racket?
Maybe you could also look at the same thing as: as private security + private detectives (?) scaled and commoditized via software and gigwork.
It‘s a nightmarish idea, don‘t get me wrong, but I can see it.
https://www.vice.com/en/article/v7evbx/citizen-app-private-s...
Citizen gets the police to pay them for access, then gets the police to advertise the app to them as an alternative to calling non emergency dispatch. In turn more people down Citizen and Citizen can probably monetize that.
In LA they even have Citizen branded patrol vehicles rather than community service officers as a pilot program. So rather than having like an unarmed (and normally unsworn) employee of LAPD in a Prius with a little orange light on the top, you get a private contractor in a citizen branded vehicle doing the patrol.
The big question is if Citizen gets into E911 systems, which have a lot more liability than non emergency type things. Is Citizen going to make a play to become the standard way of contacting 911 via text based communication at some point and attempt to generate revenue via running that infrastructure.
https://www.theverge.com/2017/12/13/16771148/robot-security-...
I knew someone that worked at the SFSPCA and they said the robot absolutely put a dent in car-break-ins, needling, and encampments in the animal-shelter parking lot, but advocates won in the end.
What worked in Knightscopes case is the feeling of "presence" that security cams, even the panning ones with a built-in speaker, are unable to give off. So Citizen branded patrols fill that "presence" role.
It’s scary how close to the real deal vehicle this Citizen patrol van looks like. I think they can even put police lights on legally if I’m not mistaken.