A new app, allowing people in crowded places to speak with on-site security teams, will be first used in London. 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 the UK in 2017, after an award of almost £250,000 from the Home Office.
The Improving Crowd Resilience (ICR) competition was launched in July 2017. It sought to fund projects which would train the public to spot security threats and allow them to report those threats. An app, created by Devon-based developers KrowdThink, lets site or venue visitors report suspicious activity or potential threats in real-time using their phones. Images sent can assist site team to assess a threat.
In the first example of an ICR-funded project reaching market, the Krowd app will be used at Broadgate Quarter in central London.
Home Office 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 £1m funding as part of the Defence and Security Accelerator facilitated ICR programme announced in the weeks following the London Bridge terror attacks.”
And 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 a perceived threat and direct staff. The app can also allow security staff to message people at a venue.
DASA is attending the Security and Policing Home Office event 2019 at the Farnborough International Exhibition and Conference Centre from March 5 to 7. Geoff Revill is also due to be at Farnborough; and at the annual public sector communications exhibition BAPCO, at the Ricoh Arena, Coventry from March 12 to 13.
