Crime-tracking app Citizen is offering people $25 an hour to livestream crime scenes and house fires in NYC and Los Angeles
- The app Citizen is hiring people to livestream crime scenes and emergencies, The NY Post reported.
- The app gives users real-time safety updates, usually provided by volunteers.
- These $25 an hour roles would involve interviewing witnesses and reporting "behind police tape."
Crime-tracking app Citizen is offering up to $25 an hour for people to livestream crime scenes in New York City and Los Angeles, according to a report by The New York Post.
The app, which describes itself as a "personal safety network," sends real-time safety alerts to users, letting them know about crimes, accidents, and emergencies. Users can view reports on a map.
The incidents are based on recent 911 calls, with photos and videos uploaded by volunteers who happen to be nearby - but the app is now advertising for "field team members" on journalism job sites, The Post reported.
The work would include interviewing witnesses and police officials and reporting "behind police tape," per the job listings.
Third-party casting agency Flyover Entertainment posted a job listing on JournalismJobs.com Thursday looking for "field team members" who would work at an unnamed "tech company with user-generated content," The Post reported.
Michael Yates, the owner of Flyover, wouldn't confirm to The Post that the listing was for Citizen, saying: "I'd violate my NDA and they'd rightfully fire me."
The Post said that the listing was removed from the website after it contacted Yates and Citizen about the vacancies, but that a Citizen spokesperson confirmed that Yates had been hired on behalf of the company, and sent The Post a link to a near-identical listing on the same site, which is still live.
"Citizen has teams in place in some of the cities where the app is available to demonstrate how the platform works, and to model responsible broadcasting practices in situations when events are unfolding in real time," a spokesperson told Insider.
"We believe these teams will ultimately help guide our users on how to broadcast in an effective, helpful and safe way," the spokesperson added. "New York City newsrooms use Citizen video in their reporting virtually daily."
Field team members would earn $250 a day for 10-hour shifts in Los Angeles, and $200 a day for eight-hour shifts in New York City, per the listings.
The job listings said that the hires, who would be expected to work four or five days a week, would be "dispatched" to cover events including house fires and reports of missing children, and that they should interview police officials and witnesses on-scene wherever possible.
"You will be the app's official on-the-ground presence, generating live content to give users real-time information on what's going on in their city as it unfolds," both job listings said.
The listings added that the hires would be "behind established media lines, behind police tape," and that they would "never" be asked to go to an "actively dangerous location."
The app launched in 2016 as Vigilante, but Apple booted it off its App Store after just two days for encouraging people to put themselves in harm's way for content. It relaunched in 2017 as Citizen, and has raised $133 million from backers including Peter Thiel, Sequoia Capital, and Greycroft.