Citizen cuts 33 employees as profitability remains out of reach

Citizen, the company that uses public police blotters to notify users about verified incidents in their area and allows users to upload their own reports of suspicious activity and livestream from crime scenes, confirmed that it laid off 33 staff members on Wednesday.

The deets

The company did not specify which departments were impacted, but one laid off employee said at least 10 engineers were let go.

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The company recently raised a $73 million Series C funding round in early 2021 and has seen about $30.3 million in consumer spending and over 14 million downloads since its launch in 2016.

Citizen has been criticized for encouraging a culture of surveillance that lends itself to racial profiling and harassment. The company did not share a reason for the layoffs, but stated they were committed to supporting the departing team members with a generous severance package.

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“We are grateful to all of our departing team members for their contributions to Citizen and are committed to supporting them through this transition with a generous severance package that includes accelerated option vesting and extended exercise window, six months of COBRA payments, career services support and other benefits,” a spokesperson at the company told Amanda Silberling at TechCrunch.

Launched into controversy

Citizen is a mobile app launched in 2016 that was banned from the App Store due to concerns about vigilantism. The app now uses public police blotters to inform users about verified incidents in their area, and also allows users to upload their own reports of suspicious activity and livestream from crime scenes. 

Despite its popularity, Citizen has faced criticism for promoting a culture of surveillance that leads to racial profiling and harassment.

Additionally, the company’s CEO, Andrew Frame, sparked controversy when he offered Citizen users $30,000 to track down a suspected arsonist while livestreaming on the app, only to later discover he had the wrong suspect. The company apologized for the incident and stated they were working to improve their internal processes. Indeed, Citizen isn’t the only one to get things wrong. Grit Daily’s coverage on Higbee & Associates, a firm known for trolling publications for false copyright infringement claims is worth a read. 

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