FAQ's

Frequently Asked Questions

For generations, whenever the police wanted to communicate with the general public, they had to reply on a filtered message. Press conferences, press releases, public statements, and tips issued through the news media are still powerful tools, but they are no longer sufficient in today's interconnected, Internet enabled world. Getting information to the public faster really can be a life-or-death situation.

Law enforcement leaders across the nation were actively searching for affordable, easy-to-deploy solutions that would help them track, monitor, and report data about crimes and criminals.

Immediately after the attacks on the World Trade Center, the White House set up a number of task forces to consider how first responders could communicate better with each other. During that process, it became clear that law enforcement needed a better way to communicate with the general public as well.

The Law Enforcement Information Technology Standards Council (LEITSC) issued a report in October, 2007, that described the ideal way for law enforcement to communicate with the public.

The report said that:

* Communication should take place in near real-time, through the tools people use every day: e-mail, the Internet, and SMS text messaging.

* Communication should be two-way, with the public empowered and comfortable in sending messages to law enforcement. (LEITSC also added that the system must be designed so that it would not overwhelm the police with unsolicited phone calls and e-mails.)

* Communication should be relevant to the public ; and to the police.

This report was issued in the final weeks before the Dallas Police Department launched a community service web site created for it by iThinQware founder Dan Elliott. That site met and exceeded the three goals LEITSC had set up for its "ideal system". Not just that, but the underlying architecture and design allowed the initial system to expand and grow into a much more powerful tool than LEITSC envisioned. At the same time the law enforcement community was grappling with its own changing public communication requirements, campus law enforcement agencies were facing the reality of complying with the Jeanne Clery Disclosure of Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act.

The Clery Act is the landmark federal law that requires colleges and universities to disclose information about crime on and around their campuses. The "Clery Act" is named in memory of 19 year old Lehigh University freshman Jeanne Ann Clery who was raped and murdered while asleep in her residence hall room on April 5, 1986. Jeanne's parents discovered that students hadn't been told about 38 violent crimes on the Lehigh campus in the three years before her murder. They joined with other campus crime victims and persuaded Congress to enact the law. It has been amended and expanded several times over the past decade, and after the tragic mass shooting on the Virginia Tech campus in 2007, the Department of Education began issuing record fines to campuses that were not in compliance with all parts of the Clery Act ; including the requirement that campus law enforcement develop a warning or alert system that can notify an entire campus community within 30 minutes of an event. In addition to these two key markets, iThinQware products are valuable to a range of corporate customers including private security firms, property management companies, broadcast and print media, and insurance companies.

For more information about how iThinQware's products apply to your market, please contact us.

What is iWatch ?
iWatch is a suite of tools that citizens can use to report suspicious or criminal activity. It’s a proactive, hands-on, program that puts crime tipping and crime reporting into the palm of your hand, allowing individuals to get information about crimes in and submit tips on their cell phones or PDAs.

iWatch was established to raise awareness for crime prevention, generate public support for local crime fighting efforts and deepen the relationship between law enforcement and communities.

How much does it cost?
The iWatch app is free to download to any iPhone, Blackberry,or Android device. There are 4 separate versions of iWatch, starting with LTE for smaller cities and schools, SAS for mid-sized cities and schools, CID for large metropolitan departments and FUSION for multicity and statewide deployments. Each has a price to reflect features and options.

What do law enforcement officers and IT personnel who work with it say about the iWatch app?

Kelley Stone, MBA, Director of Homeland Security, Collin County, North Central Texas Fusion Center, say of iWatch “There’s nothing like it on the Planet”.

Sheriff Adrian Garcia, of Houston, noted, “iWatch is going to be huge”.

What are the biggest benefits of the app?

A secure, closed communications dashboard available only to law enforcement displays all available information about the crime, the suspect and the victim from forensic data to witness statements. Defined groups (investigating officers, patrol officers in a defined area, supervisors, etc.) can receive alerts when new information is added to the case file and investigators can set up discussion groups or email lists to pool information, theories and thoughts on the crime. An open communications module managed by law enforcement displays selected information to the general public.

The date, location and general description of the burglary would be publicly available within a few seconds.

Interested members of the general public who had signed up to receive alerts about a specific kind of crime, offenses in a particular zip code, or crimes against a particular type of victim (crimes against the elderly, crimes against children, hate crimes, etc.) would be notified of the offense in near real time via the alerting method (SMS text message, email, or RSS feed) they selected. Citizens can then respond to the alert by sending relevant tips, photos, videos and other information directly to the police.

This combination of public and private communications with automatic sorting, segregation and delivery of information by audience and information type is extremely powerful and has not been available to law enforcement in the past except with costly customized systems that took months to build and deploy. iThinQware’s solution is cost-effective enough to fall within the discretionary spending limits in most agencies and powerful enough to meet and exceed expectations and needs in multiple departments within the agency.

By delivering tested, standards-compliant, state-of-market products within the discretionary budget parameters, we are able to offer affordable, grant approved solutions to the real public communications problems faced by our target market. Each iThinQware product is uniquely suited to its target market, including full compliance with industry standards such as those established by the Law Enforcement Information Technology Standards Council (LEITSC) .

Details on LEITSC standards for law enforcement records management systems, including public information systems, are available in a 67-page Acrobat file that can be downloaded at: http://www.leitsc.org/Files/LawEnforcementRMS.pdf iThinQware’s alpha product, currently in testing in the FUSION Group at the Dallas Police Department, has been determined by the department to comply with these standards.

I read that iWatch is already used in 68 police and sheriff's departments. Popularity is growing fast. Can it be released nationally?

Yes, we have over 500 cities across the US that have either requested information about building an iWatch system with us, or are in negotiations to build one

Use of digital technology in schools

Students may see things that don’t fit or make sense; they may realize other students are selling drugs, engaging in inappropriate behavior with adults or holding private parties where there are drugs or alcohol—iWatch is a means for them to communicate those things anonymously to law enforcement.

Use of technology by students

Teach students that they can use their phone to report suspicious or out of place activities and crimes, and that by doing so they are responsibly contributing to a better community.

Connection to kids

Reaches students in a new way, allows faculty, staff, parents, students and law enforcement to come together as a collective to help reduce crime through digital communication

Builds partnership, helps teach young people to like and communicate with law enforcement

Could you explain the role of law enforcement and IT personnel in this? (Who monitors it? Where is it monitored from? Who oversees it?)

There is a dashboard that is PD only, that permits the department to operate in a centralized dispatch model or to forward the tips to a mobile dashboard with the same flexibility and features.

Does iWatch have others uses?

We’ve sold iWatch to Sheriff’s offices, Police Departments in California, Minnesota, Texas, and have Private Security customers across the US. We also have sold to Transportation for Trucking security, Universities are very excited about iWatch for safety on campus. In fact, we are partners with SecurityonCampus.org, the founders of the Clery Act for Campus Safety.

Anything else you’d like to say about iWatch?

Fifteen years ago, Dan Elliott was doing something many of us have done without a second thought.

– He stopped in a neighborhood where he’d lived a few years earlier to make a quick phone call at the old convenience store.

What ensued, however, changed his life forever. With a gun suddenly shoved underneath his ribs, Dan was ordered by the man standing behind him to hand over his cash and car keys. Fortunately, the mugger took only Dan’s material possessions, leaving him with something much more valuable than money—his life. What has also remained with Dan is the realization that if he had known his old neighborhood had changed for the worse, he would have stopped somewhere else. Since that moment, he has been keenly aware that not everyone in his situation would have been fortunate enough to escape unharmed. That point was brought even closer to home when his brother’s fiancée was found murdered in her apartment a few years later.

When this second devastating, needless crime took hold of his entire family, Dan was left with a deep sense of responsibility toward the safety of the people around him—a responsibility that has driven him now for nearly two decades to find a way to help prevent the same thing from happening to others. iThinQware is the result of that profound determination. Dan’s desire to inform communities of crimes and alert individuals to potential dangers is the force that continues to guide him.

When asked about his work and dedication to this project, he only has one thing to say: “I believe my life was spared for a reason, so it’s my responsibility to pay it forward.” As the founder of iThinQware, Inc. he’s spent the past ten years chipping away at the giant stone of crime prevention and crime reporting. No longer a private struggle, this project is now a public success as iThinQware launches in launches in city after city with the hope of giving everyone the tools they need to communicate with Police about their personal safety.

iWatch Features With iPredict Dashboard

	Smartphone apps are free downloads from the app-store
	Track tips by user, offense, reporting area and more.
	Reports received may be auto-responded or live response (ie: Dispatch or CID).
	Search multiple variable (date, offense, keyword, UCR).
	The Dashboard can integrate to CAD to display offense, and can send tip content back to CAD for Dispatch
	Receive tips from email, online forms or SMS.
	Tips may be text, voice, image or video.
	Reports may be programmed for auto delivery to Command staff and may be in CSV, RSS or PDF formats.
	Complies with GJXML, NIEM and LEXS standards.
	Scalable to connect multiple jurisdictions, to share locally, regionally or statewide.
	Platform based architecture meets local, state & federal legal & privacy mandates

	ips are received as email, voice or SMS but are also stored in iWatch.
	Tips are mapped on Google maps, and displayed with the text of the report.
	Tips are searchable based upon offense number, date range, keywords in text, suspect profile, vehicle, ip address or location.
	Search multiple variable (date, offense, keyword, UCR).
	Share data as text, RSS, web video, email
	Unique identifier for tip receipt permits the tip to be associated with current offenses or with new tips not related to prior offenses
	Tips may be mapped by identifying the Geocode of the phone when sending the message.
	Alerting Groups or Task Force Teams may be alerted automatically.
	Alerts may include links to Crime Maps, which can generate crime tips..
	Citizens may sign up for alerts on the phone, and in email (reverse 911 system)
	The app integrates to Facebook and Youtube to display content and alert the public.