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Crowd safety app to launch following Home Office funding

By April 9, 2019January 26th, 2021Member News & Updates, STEMM

New app to be launched to help keep people safe in crowded places.

 

A new app to keep people safe in crowded places will be used at a major London location, after an award of almost £250,000 from the Home Office.

The app, called The Krowd, is the first project to be launched publicly under a scheme set up in response to the terror attacks in 2017.

The Improving Crowd Resilience competition was launched in July 2017 and forms part of the government’s efforts to do more with the private sector to encourage them to help tackle the security challenges facing the UK.

 

 

It sought to fund innovative projects which would train the public to spot security threats and allow them to report those threats.

The app, created by Devon-based developers KrowdThink, allows people in crowded places to speak directly with on-site security teams, allowing visitors to report suspicious activity or potential threats in real-time using their phones.

Images are then sent instantly from the crowd and can assist the security team to assess a threat.

In the first example of an Improving Crowd Resilience (ICR) funded project reaching market, the Krowd app will be used at Broadgate Quarter in central London.

Security Minister, Ben Wallace said:

We are bringing government and industry together to develop tools designed to keep us all safe as we go about our day-to-day lives.

I am delighted that this initiative has already started to yield some ground-breaking technologies, like this app, and I look forward to further such innovations.

The Krowd app was one of several which shared £1 million funding as part of the Defence and Security Accelerator facilitated ICR programme announced in the weeks following the London Bridge terror attacks.

Geoff Revill, KrowdThink Managing Director said:

I am delighted that The Krowd app is going to be rolled out commercially. Our dedication to producing a truly interactive and effective crowd safety tool has paid off.

The funding and support from the Defence and Security Accelerator and the Home Office has given us expert insight, significantly accelerating our ability to move forward commercially.

We have created a unique product that we are confident will make crowded places and events fundamentally safer.

Using the app’s venue mapping feature, security staff can locate the perceived threat and rapidly direct staff to the situation. The app can also allow security staff to message the people at a venue directly, guiding them to safety.

The app will be available for the public to use in the coming weeks.

 

      

 

Availability

The Krowd, KrowdedPlace and KrowdSafe are available immediately. The Krowd is a free

app and users can initiate a Krowd in any venue with Wi-Fi. KrowdedPlace and KrowdSafe

are SaaS that venue owners may subscribe to. By generating revenue through a service we

obviate the need to collect personal data, track, or profile Krowd users.

 

About Krowdthink

Krowdthink considers the Internet is made up of millions of intranets, defined by Wi-Fi.

Instead of aggregating troves of data to the cloud, we enhance communication, networking

and ultimately community in places that offer Wi-Fi, and we deliver this by making personal

data minimization our point of innovation. By localizing communication we enable cultural

norms to dominate the digital conversation and empower place owners to ensure the

positive curation of their digital community closely tied to place. You can only get into a

venue Krowd if you turn up! We are ‘Social gone Local’tm.

Trademarks

 

Krowd is a registered trademark of Krowdthink Ltd in the UK and USA

KrowdedPlace and KrowdSafe are trademarks of Krowdthink Ltd.

‘Social gone Local’ is a trademark of Krowdthink Ltd