SARASOTA (WSNN) – A Suncoast-based security smartphone app makes it’s way to Minnesota in the wake of George Floyd’s death.
A smartphone captured the nearly nine remaining minutes of George Floyd’s life. A Suncoast app developer has spent three years perfecting an app to expand the role of smartphones to aid in what he calls “Community Empowerment.”
Kevin Angell says the inspiration for the ‘See it Say it Send it‘ app was the See Something, Say Something movement a few years ago. As he sees it, the app is a two-way street helping communities and their respective law enforcement agencies work better together.
“Because it’s a two-way app,” Angell said. “People can send submit information of things they see happening in their community.”
Angell says last month, the Minnesota Fusion Center, an agency similar to Florida’s Department of Law Enforcement, signed on to implement ‘See it Say it Send it.’
“We actually had the Belle Plaine Police Department that was originally using it in Minnesota The state has come in and said look we don’t want for just one police department, we want it, everybody, in the state to have access to it.”
Angell positions See it Say it Send it as a relationship builder between residents and law enforcement.
Florida’s Martin County Lt. Ryan Grimsdale says this is the reason why they use it. They purchased the app in 2018 against the backdrop of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas school shooting to stay in communication with students. Since then it’s expanded to the entire county.
“The ability to get information out to the public as much as it is to get information back from the public is paramount for our ability to function properly,” Lt. Grimsdale said.
Lt. Grimsdale says it’s been successful and they haven’t needed to use it for protests.
“In this unique time, we’ve found face-to-face interaction is probably more appropriate,” Lt. Grimsdale said.
Angell says Minnesota’s Fusion Center is rolling the app out into communities and expects to implement it in schools come August.
