Memphis community organizer Keedran Franklin is urging people to use the app Cell 411 to improve safety efforts in the city.
According to Cell 411, the app can “alert your friends, neighbors, and even emergency service providers when you are in danger, experiencing medical distress, or just need assistance.” The app was created by activists, and users can report acts of police brutality, illegal searches, and more.
The user’s location and alerts can only be seen by people that they specifically allow.
Franklin is encouraging people to download the app and create their own “cells,” which are groups of friends, neighbors, and family that can be alerted at any time. He also encourages people to create their own safety modules.
As a “walking and professional organizer,” Franklin said that once he recognizes a problem, he sets out to make solutions. He said that it is his civic duty to do things for other people.
“There are only 1,900 police officers here in the city of Memphis,” said Franklin. “They can’t be everywhere and serve everyone in time. This app will allow Memphians to connect to one another instantaneously by the click of a panic button.”
The panic button is a feature on the app that will send notifications to people within a 10-mile radius of the location of the incident. It can also provide a live video feed.
Franklin said that with public safety being an issue in the city, he believed that there needed to be some formality for citizens to help protect themselves.
The app, according to Franklin, is a call-and-response app. Users do not have to worry about picking up the phone and dialing a number.
“I can just press a button, and I can have eyes on me at any time,” said Franklin.
According to Franklin, the app is similar to Facebook without statuses. He said that the app is strictly about communicating to people like family, friends and coworkers.
“It has my map on there. There’s a ring that has different options of conflict. Some may say a panic button, or ‘I am being harassed,’ or ‘I’m being pulled over by the police,’” said Franklin.
The app offers different options for users, however Franklin said that having instant access for people to see exactly what’s going on in the present moment is important. He said that this app can be useful to people such as sex workers and women.
“There are a lot of women coming up missing, and some are being found dead and some are just still missing. At the point of something happening, you can hit a button, and people can have instant access to where they are, what’s going on, [and] video of what’s going on. It’s one of those free flowing apps that we can use however we want to.”
As a native Memphian, Franklin said that he has worked to find a solution to Memphis’ crime problem for years.
“I’m an organizer. I like socioeconomic issues. I’m in street orgs myself, so I’m tuned in to the streets just as much as I’m tuned in to public safety and local politics and national politics. I also organize around the country for an organization called Black Men Build.”