Built for the moments that need attention.

A department may publish a request related to a missing person or an incident. Residents need a clear source, safe instructions, and an appropriate way to send relevant observations.

Road closures and local hazards can matter to a resident's home, workplace, or travel route. Following relevant departments can help organize those sources where they participate.

A useful tip provides context without encouraging independent investigation. Information must reach the intended agency and enter an established review process.

A public request about a missing person, a notice about a local hazard and a request for information about an item involve different circumstances. They share a practical communication pattern: an identifiable agency explains the situation, a resident understands the relevant context and an appropriate next step becomes clear.

The examples in this section are explanatory scenarios. They are not case studies, endorsements or claims about recoveries, response times or active deployments. They show the role a connected citizen and department experience is intended to play, while preserving the agency’s responsibility for its information.

A useful observation can come from ordinary life: noticing a relevant item, remembering a time or already possessing media the agency has asked about. The value is in the relationship between that information and the request, not in encouraging people to seek out an incident.

Read the focused guides for practical distinctions. A hazard notice may call for avoiding an area. An information request may invite a factual tip. An emergency needs the appropriate emergency service. Keeping those purposes clear makes the examples more useful than a broad claim that every situation belongs in one app.

A public request for information begins with something the department wants to learn. A local notice begins with something the audience needs to know. A standalone tip begins with an observation a resident believes may be relevant. Those starting points lead to different actions even when they use the same app.

The missing-person guide explains how to stay with the agency’s current request and avoid turning an observation into a public accusation. The local-hazards guide focuses on place, time and instructions. The community-tips guide shows how a firsthand account can be written so someone else can assess it.

Use these examples to understand the intended workflow. They are not accounts of incidents resolved by Lucas or Sentinel. Actual agency participation, the current feature and the receiving department’s instructions determine which tasks are available.

A resident can recognize a place, remember a time or explain how an item came to their attention. That information may sit outside an automated vehicle observation or an initial public message. The contribution is useful when the person explains its connection to the request.

For instance, a fictional missing-child observation can include the entrance of a park, an approximate time and the features the contributor actually saw. It should not confirm an identity or accuse another person without a basis. Accuracy includes admitting when an important detail is uncertain or was not visible.

The FBI’s guidance on submitting tips emphasizes facts, place and time. Applying that principle to an app means making the account understandable, rather than treating more uploads or more confident language as automatically better information.

Source: FBI: providing useful information in a tip

A department’s public request can invite information without inviting residents to investigate. Share what you already know. Do not follow someone, enter property or expose personal information publicly in an effort to produce a tip.

The same observation can have different urgency depending on the circumstances. If someone needs immediate assistance, use emergency services. For a non-emergency account, follow the responsible agency’s reporting directions and check that the recipient is correct.

If you are evaluating the products for a department, use a fictional or otherwise approved scenario to inspect both sides. Ask what residents understand, what the reviewer receives and who is responsible for the next step. A realistic example can reveal requirements that a feature list leaves unanswered.