Are you allowed to report crime using a mobile app?

The CITYCoP project is a collaborative project of the STeP (Security, Technology and e-Privacy) research team at the University of Groningen (Faculty of Law) co-funded by the European Union.

CITYCoP is looking at "community policing", that is, citizens assisting police departments in identifying and reporting crime (a kind of neighborhood watch), worldwide. It is developing a unique European solution for this including an app and online portal. The app and online portal will be deployed in European cities. Because all cities are unique, the app will have specific features that can be turned on to customize the app based on the local specifics of the cities.

One of the aims of the project is to collect views from European citizens on the use of community policing tools and to identify factors that can help reduce a sense of insecurity. These views of European citizens will be collected in all participating countries.