“Gun violence is on the rise in Rio de Janeiro, with the sound of firefights echoing daily across Brazil’s seaside city as drug gangs battle each other and police officers patrolling slums,” reuters.com reports. “Now a pair of applications track in real-time how many gun battles there are and where they occur, based on eyewitnesses, media and police accounts.” Specifically . . .
The “Fogo Cruzado,” or Cross Fire, application created by Amnesty International and local researcher aims to let Rio’s citizens know where gunfire is taking place, in the hopes of keeping them out of danger.
A second application is called Onde Tem Tiroteio – “Where are the Firefights” – with similar objectives.
Given Chicago’s daily gangland gun battles, and the collateral damage created by same, it’s only a matter of time before some enterprising entrepreneur replicates the concept stateside. Watch this space.