New Era Detroit launches crime prevention app
Introducing the Safe Zone Mobile App
Zeek Williams has spent years combatting crime and violence in his home city. The neighborhood he knows best is also one of the toughest places in Detroit to live. He hopes his group's new app and New Era Detroit's Mobile Resources Hub can help curb that reputation.
DETROIT (FOX 2) - Standing in the neighborhood he knows all too well, Zeek Williams considers himself the face in a fight on the front lines of violence.
"I grew up on the Northwest side, so I’m very familiar with Northwest Detroit and the layout, the people," the founder of New Era Detroit says. As president of the organization, he's been intimately involved in reducing gun violence in the city - especially in neighborhoods that Detroit police consider some of the city's most violent.
Nearby intersections have memorials to gunshot victims - an all-too common reminder for Williams and the daunting task his group faces.
"It’s been too many of those," Williams said. "That’s the reason we do what we do - especially when it comes to children being murdered in our streets and our communities."
The next step for New Era Detroit is their Safe Zone Mobile App.
Sort of like a digital 911 tool, it allows the user to let their parents or guardians know that something is wrong.
"Say, for instance a kid is walking home from school right. So, he has his phone in his hand. He’s aware that a van is following him," he said. "He has the app in his hand. Say, someone jumps out the van and grabs him.
"The kid doesn’t have time to call 911, alert anyone, but they hold down that button for 2-to-3 seconds, and it will immediately alert their family that there’s a problem," Williams said.
The app is part of a larger set of tools that safety advocates and the police department hope will curb violence and reduce the victims that suffer trauma as a result.
While only in its beta phase, New Era Detroit envisions rolling out the app to other neighborhoods in Detroit. It's something Williams is "extremely proud of."
Combined with the Mobile Resources Hub, Williams says the approach allows his team to combat violence in a direct preventative way, as well as a softer approach to reducing violence.
Inside the hub, which is akin to a tour bus, the driver can provide food to struggling families and give kids a safe space to do homework, among other things.
So how do people feel when they see the unit roll up?
"Yea. So the people are excited always. They’re throwing up the fist. They’re asking us to blow the horn," he said. "That’s what keeps us going is the excitement from the community. The support from the community."