As the Westminster Police Department begins to use new technology to communicate with the community, it is important to us that the community members understand this technology and how it will be utilized.
The Westminster Police Department mobile app is available to the public through both the Apple App Store and Google Play. By downloading the mobile app, these platforms provide the following statistical data, which is available to app administrators at the Westminster Police Department:
- Number of mobile app downloads
- Summary Data:
- Total number of page views
- Total number of times the mobile app has been launched
- Length of time spent on the mobile app by users
- Statistical information
- Types of devices downloading the app (i.e. Android vs. Apple)
After the mobile app is downloaded on your device, there is a prompt in reference to allowing the mobile app to send your device push notifications. By allowing push notifications, you will receive popup notifications from the mobile app when:
- News stories are published
- And at other times when app administrators opt to push out specific information to the community
- Granting the Westminster Police Department mobile app permission to send push notifications is not required to use the mobile app
In addition to push notifications, there is also an option to allow the mobile app to use your device’s location services. This feature is currently used to:
- Use your device's location when reporting incidents, such as homeless camps and graffiti
- Granting the Westminster Police Department mobile app permission to use your device's location services is not required to use the mobile app
The Westminster Police Department mobile app does NOT collect any of the following information:
- Identifiable user information (name, phone number, contact information or Apple/Google profile information)
- Individual location information of any device
Question & Answer
Q: If I allow the Westminster Police Department mobile app permission to use my device’s location services, can the Westminster Police Department see where my device is?
- A: No. The Westminster Police Department has no method to see which users have turned on location services.