​

There are a many apps that claim to navigate users through cities prioritizing “safety”. Some use crowd sourced data, reports of “dangerous” or “sketchy spots” to help walkers avoid unsafe paths, more often they use crime data, collected by municipalities. Relying on subjective metrics like “sketchiness” can result in a racist or classist data sets. Crime data taken uncritically has these same biases baked in, at an institutional level. At the same time- these apps make implicit assumptions about what might make a person feel safe. Fewer drug busts, more police officers, white neighborhoods with well-lit streets and expensive houses: this set of parameters does not represent safety for all Americans, and for some could represent added danger. Still most safe navigation apps route people out of poorer neighborhoods into richer ones and out of black and brown neighborhoods into whiter ones.

​