CrimeRadar..

[KD0FEO]

We've noticed that CrimeRadar has now started scraping Broadcastify calls and is now generating reports from Fire TAC channels. In our area, numerous departments conduct training and mock scenarios on their internal channels and this week 2 alerts went out that were false. Had numerous followers from our Facebook page reach out and ask what is going on and after investigation came to the consensus that CrimeRadar was misleading it's users. A local Fire Department posted on social media regarding the false alerts.

I'm not a fan of them scraping the calls platform, information should be based on public feeds so sensitive or private information isn't dumped into AI and broadcast to the public. Incidents like this are going to lead to more channels becoming encrypted and unavailable to those who use the information for public safety. The only solution thus far was for us to remove all internal and Fire TAC channels from being sent to the calls platform to make this data unavailable to them.

Has anyone else experienced this or having issues with CrimeRadar seemingly stepping out of bounds?

 

[Enforcer52]

I several instances of Crime Radar attributing a call to San Jacinto County when the call actually occurred in Montgomery, Harris, or Liberty County. They also mix calls from different incidents into one incident. And their transcription is terrible.

I know its money for RR, but till their AI improves they should be stopped from using our Broadcastify and Calls streams.

I've also noticed that our users listing no longer reflect any of the scrappers being used.

 

[IcomIcR20]

I have noticed the same thing on NewsBreak. The transcription accuracy is poor, and the resulting alerts frequently are quite inaccurate, especially for agencies that are heavy users of codes rather than plain English. The app also does a poor job of properly localizing calls, particuarly when the addresses are just numerical county roads, as is often the case in rural areas.

I have also noticed it starting to scrape tactical TGs which I am rather wary of. I am overall a fan of the Calls platform (I provide several nodes myself) but I think lettings these apps post audio from sensitive talkgroups is just asking for trouble and further hastening the move toward encryption.

 

[KD0FEO]

Wright County has had the radio service working and testing on tactical channels all morning also including the fire main dispatch. I'm not concerned with the accuracy of CrimeRadar, that is the least of my worries. Feed providers go the extra mile to ensure we are following standards and guidelines when it comes to broadcasting. It seems irresponsible for someone to think that scraping ALL calls then being the hero for having AI manage the data unvetted for clout is a good idea. I fear that considering a local Fire Department had to make an announcement to walk back false notifications that were broadcast by CrimeRadar that this is going to result in losing more talkgroups. WR FIRE TAC 5, WR FIRE TAC 6 and Wright Fire Dispatch are all in limbo right now. It would be meaningless to continue the feed if fire dispatch and fire channels are lost. Wright County has already shown they are not afraid to encrypt, their wallet is open their jail went encrypted a few months back.

 

[FreshDole]

The great thing about Crime Radar, in my opinion, is the formation is more up to date then what I hear on the police scanner. By 1/2 an hour.

 

[blantonl]

NewsBreak and CrimeRadar are licensed to use our content. I'll pass along your feedback to them. They have asked that we provide feedback when this sort of stuff occurs, so I'll make sure they are aware.

 

[N8WCP]

Just another reason to justify encryption

 

[seagravebuff60]

NewsBreak and CrimeRadar have both been using feeds in my area. I will say I am not a fan of either of them. Their AI Transcription especialy is the absolute worst across all the feeds in my area, and it is very annoying to read a transcription that's so wrong.

CrimeRadar, which pulls Specific feeds that provide Fire/EMS in my area, shows very meaningless (imo) incidents like "Fire/EMS are responding to a 69-year-old Female who stubbed her toe at...." and markets it as breaking news. Clearly not breaking news. Then you should see the blatantly wrong AI Transcription of the call. It's both hilarious and frustrating at the same time.

 

[KD0FEO]

It's all about the money, it was clearly stated that Newsbreak & CrimeRadar are licensed to use content. I guess we'll see if the amount of money coming in is worth the damage it may potentially be causing on the back-end... to the sources that keep this site alive. CrimeRadar is trash, I don't see anything changing.

 

[iceman977th]

NewsBreak and CrimeRadar are licensed to use our content. I'll pass along your feedback to them. They have asked that we provide feedback when this sort of stuff occurs, so I'll make sure they are aware.

You'd end up blocking me from the amount of times they post wrong information to their page, not going to lie.

Personally, I'd really like an "opt out" feature, that makes it optional to send data to them. It's a nice idea, but pulling it strictly from legacy feeds is not a good idea. Most feeds are a mix of channels so if you get inter-mixing calls (IE I use SDRTrunk so it can mix law, fire, and EMS clips back to back) then it throws the AI detection way off and posts bad information. I also don't think it's fair to post every medical call under the sun to their page, especially the normal bullsh*t "back pain" calls.

Now, I'm okay with pulling data from Calls, since each TG is separated and it would reduce bad information. But, still, an "opt out" would be a fair feature to ask for. Some are okay with sending the data to them, others aren't for listed above. If we have some sort of input/control over it, I'd be okay with it, but forcing it purely for financial reasons is a bad idea in my eyes.

Side note, it looks like the "Crime Map" on Newsbreak is gone.. not sure if that's intentional or not, but I've not been able to pull it up at least in my local area.

 

[iceman977th]

Just came across this video on CrimeRadar as well. https://www.wkyc.com/video/news/loc...r-app-is-spreading-false-and-misleading-info/

 

[n0xvz]

Since my internet isn't broken: Northeast Ohio police departments say CrimeRadar app is spreading false and misleading info

 

[blantonl]

The Newsbreak and Crimeradar teams are intimately aware of these issues and are actively working to mitigate and address.

 

[iceman977th]

The Newsbreak and Crimeradar teams are intimately aware of these issues and are actively working to mitigate and address.

They can work on it all they want, but at this point I would much rather have an "opt out" because of the issues like we just posted about. It's a half-assed product that should still be in development (I know AI isn't perfect) and if we are contributing to it, at least work out some sort of partnership or way to modify/permit/delete what gets posted there.

 

[iceman977th]

Here's another video about CrimeRadar falsely posting about a shots fired incident at an elementary school.

 

[jtwalker]

They can work on it all they want, but at this point I would much rather have an "opt out" because of the issues like we just posted about. It's a half-assed product that should still be in development (I know AI isn't perfect) and if we are contributing to it, at least work out some sort of partnership or way to modify/permit/delete what gets posted there.

Opt-out? Delete the app and forget it even existed.

 

[iceman977th]

Opt-out? Delete the app and forget it even existed.

I'm talking about opting out of allowing Crime Radar/Newsbreak to datamine. It's clearly an unfinished and buggy product that should not be available, and is contributing to a lot of false hysteria as the videos above have shown.

I fully understand Lindsay has to pay the bills, but us, as the ones that provide the feeds they scrap from, should have the option to opt out, since that was not really thought of years ago when Radioreference and then Broadcastify came to be. It's a different world out there, but until these developers polish their product or integrate better ways to manage the alerts being posted, I'm not for it at all personally.

 

[jtwalker]

I'm talking about opting out of allowing Crime Radar/Newsbreak to datamine. It's clearly an unfinished and buggy product that should not be available, and is contributing to a lot of false hysteria as the videos above have shown.

I fully understand Lindsay has to pay the bills, but us, as the ones that provide the feeds they scrap from, should have the option to opt out, since that was not really thought of years ago when Radioreference and then Broadcastify came to be. It's a different world out there, but until these developers polish their product or integrate better ways to manage the alerts being posted, I'm not for it at all personally.

Got you now. I didn’t understand before.

 

[iceman977th]

And now it's hit our area. Our county coroner just shared a post about a false homicide report from this morning. This is getting out of hand.

@blantonl I'm sorry but you have to do something about this. It's going to cause nothing but issues that are going to snowball from here, and you may very well begin losing hosts in doing so. I was not a fan of it originally but I didn't mind it until this all started happening.

 

[N4KVL]

CrimeRadar and it's AI scraping of calls (incorrectly) and subsequent false alerts to news outlets, has five agencies in my area that were previously opposed to encrypting their radio traffic to engage with those of us that are secure to follow suit.

If this keeps up, most of you will have nothing to listen to soon enough.