Finding & evaluating community policing apps in Asia

The ubiquity of mobile devices creates new opportunities for the police to engage with citizens anywhere and anytime. However, there is limited academic work evaluating these technologies. This paper reports on a review study of Android community policing (CP) apps used in Asia. Our study indicates that in the absence of guidance, finding appropriate Asian CP apps is challenging. This paper reports the descriptive app Store characteristics, functionalities, communication channels, and privacy features of CP apps. We conclude with some design implications and call for developing a standardized app store description system and an evaluation model to help users find and select appropriate CP apps.