ShieldNav is a navigation aid, not an emergency response system. Crime data displayed in the app is historical and may not reflect current conditions.
ShieldNav displays publicly available crime incident data sourced from official municipal and law enforcement databases. This data includes reported incidents such as theft, assault, burglary, vandalism, and other offenses as classified by local law enforcement agencies.
Crime data is used to:
Crime data is one informational input among many — it is not a comprehensive picture of an area's safety, character, or the likelihood of any future event.
ShieldNav obtains crime incident data from public municipal open data portals and law enforcement agencies. This data has significant inherent limitations:
ShieldNav does not independently verify individual incident reports. We display data as received from official sources. ShieldNav is not responsible for errors, omissions, or inaccuracies in source data.
ShieldNav is not a real-time crime alert system. The app:
All crime data shown in ShieldNav is historical, typically ranging from hours to years old depending on the data source refresh cycle and the city. Route safety scores are based on historical incident patterns, not live conditions.
ShieldNav is committed to ensuring its services are not used to facilitate unlawful discrimination. Crime data has historically been correlated with race and socioeconomic status due to decades of systemic over-policing in certain communities — this correlation reflects historical law enforcement patterns, not the character or safety of those communities or the people who live there.
ShieldNav's crime safety scores are derived solely from reported incident data. They do not incorporate, reflect, or correlate with the demographic characteristics, racial composition, national origin, religion, sex, disability status, or any other protected class attributes of any neighborhood or its residents.
You must not use ShieldNav to:
Such use violates the Fair Housing Act (42 U.S.C. § 3604), the Equal Credit Opportunity Act, and ShieldNav's Terms of Use. We reserve the right to suspend accounts we believe are being used in this manner.
ShieldNav's route recommendations and safety scores are informational tools only. No route is guaranteed to be free from crime, danger, or hazard.
A route with a high safety score may still involve risk. A route with a lower score may be perfectly safe at the time you travel. Crime patterns change. ShieldNav cannot predict future events.
You should:
Use audio guidance only while operating a vehicle. Interacting with the ShieldNav app while driving is dangerous and may be illegal in your jurisdiction. You are solely responsible for safe vehicle operation at all times.
ShieldNav provides route guidance for informational purposes only. Navigation directions may contain errors due to map data limitations, road condition changes, or routing algorithm imperfections. Always:
ShieldNav is not connected to emergency services. The app cannot contact police, fire, or medical services on your behalf. Do not use ShieldNav as a substitute for calling emergency services.
After reaching safety, you can report crime incidents through your local government's non-emergency line or online reporting portal. ShieldNav may eventually reflect newly reported incidents after they appear in public data sources.
ShieldNav calculates area safety scores using a proprietary algorithm that considers:
Scores are recalculated periodically as new data becomes available. Score methodology may change over time as we refine our models. ShieldNav does not publish the specific weights or formulas used in scoring calculations, as these are proprietary.
Data attribution: Crime data is sourced from municipal open data portals operated by the respective city governments. ShieldNav does not claim ownership of underlying incident data. City attribution is displayed within the app's crime coverage section.
To the fullest extent permitted by applicable law, ShieldNav and its officers, directors, employees, agents, licensors, and service providers shall not be liable for any direct, indirect, incidental, special, consequential, or punitive damages arising from:
This limitation applies regardless of the legal theory under which such damages are claimed and even if ShieldNav has been advised of the possibility of such damages.
This disclaimer is subject to the full Limitation of Liability section in our Terms of Use.
If you have questions about our crime data sources, methodology, or this disclaimer, please contact us:
To report an error in crime data displayed in the app, use the in-app feedback tool (Settings → Development Feedback) and select "Data Issue" as the type.