ShieldNav is a navigation aid, not an emergency response system. Crime data displayed in the app is historical and may not reflect current conditions.
1. What Crime Data Is
ShieldNav displays crime incident data licensed from CrimeoMeter, which collects incident reports published by police departments and city open-data portals. 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:
- Display incident markers and heatmaps on the map
- Rank route alternatives by the incidents reported near each one
- Suggest potentially safer route alternatives during navigation
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.
2. Data Sources and Limitations
ShieldNav obtains crime incident data from CrimeoMeter, which collects it from police departments and city open-data portals. ShieldNav currently covers select Illinois cities, listed in the app under Settings › Crime Coverage Cities. This data has significant inherent limitations:
- Underreporting: Many crimes, particularly domestic violence, sexual assault, and hate crimes, are chronically underreported to law enforcement. The absence of reported incidents does not mean an area is free of crime.
- Reporting delays: Data is published on a lag. Incidents from the past 24–72 hours (or longer) may not yet appear in our data feed.
- Geocoding inaccuracies: Some incidents are geocoded to approximate locations or block-level centroids, not precise incident addresses. Map pins may be off by a city block or more.
- Record quality: Incident reports may contain errors, duplicates, or charges that were later reduced, dismissed, or determined to be unfounded.
- Classification inconsistency: Crime classification systems vary by jurisdiction. The same act may be classified differently in different cities.
- Coverage gaps: Not all cities or jurisdictions publish crime data publicly. ShieldNav's coverage is limited to cities where data is available. See our coverage list in the app.
- Not comprehensive: Open data portals do not include all incident types — federal crimes, certain juvenile records, and sealed records are excluded.
ShieldNav does not independently verify individual incident reports. We display data as received from our data provider. ShieldNav is not responsible for errors, omissions, or inaccuracies in source data.
3. Not a Real-Time Safety System
ShieldNav is not a real-time crime alert system. The app:
- Does not receive live feeds from 911 dispatch centers
- Does not monitor police radio or CAD (computer-aided dispatch) systems
- Does not provide alerts about crimes in progress
- Does not have access to non-public law enforcement data
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 comparisons are based on historical incident patterns, not live conditions.
4. Fair Housing and Anti-Discrimination Statement
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 route comparisons are derived solely from reported incident data (type, location, and date). They do not use 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:
- Steer individuals away from housing in any neighborhood based on its residents' demographics
- Make discriminatory decisions in the provision of housing, lending, insurance, or public accommodations
- Characterize or portray any neighborhood or community as inherently dangerous based on its residents
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.
5. No Guarantee of Safety
ShieldNav's route recommendations, safety rankings, and crime data are informational tools only. No route is guaranteed to be free from crime, danger, or hazard.
The route marked Safest may still involve risk. A route not marked Safest may be perfectly safe at the time you travel. Crime patterns change. ShieldNav cannot predict future events.
You should:
- Use your own judgment when evaluating routes and areas
- Consider factors beyond crime data (time of day, weather, traffic, personal familiarity with the area)
- Never place more confidence in the app's suggestions than your own situational awareness
6. Navigation Safety
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:
- Follow posted road signs and traffic signals, which take precedence over app guidance
- Obey all applicable traffic laws
- Exercise independent judgment when navigation directions seem incorrect
7. Emergency Situations
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.
8. Data Methodology
When you plan a trip, HERE returns several possible routes. ShieldNav compares them using the reported incidents near each one:
- Incidents near each route: ShieldNav counts the reported incidents within your Crime Detection Radius of each route. You can change the radius in Crime Routing Preferences.
- Compared per mile: A longer route passes more places, so routes are compared by incidents per mile checked. The route with the lowest rate gets the Safest badge. If it is also the quickest, it is marked Safest and Fastest.
- Only routes we could check: A route with no crime data covering it is left out of the comparison rather than counted as clear.
- Sometimes there is no Safest: If every route comes back clean, or too little was checked to call one safer, no route gets the badge.
ShieldNav does not give neighborhoods, streets, or routes a safety score. The Safest and Fastest badges are the only safety signal in the app. The comparison uses only the type, location, and date of reported incidents — never the demographics of an area or its residents. Reported crime reflects which crimes are reported and where police patrol, not just where crime happens, so treat the comparison as one input, not a verdict on an area. This methodology may change over time; the in-app guide (Settings › How ShieldNav works) always describes the current version.
Data attribution: Crime data is licensed from CrimeoMeter, which collects incident reports published by police departments and city open-data portals. ShieldNav does not claim ownership of the underlying incident data. Every screen that shows crime data in the app credits CrimeoMeter as the source.
9. Limitation of Liability
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:
- Your reliance on crime data, Safest or Fastest badges, or route recommendations provided by the app
- Inaccuracies, errors, or omissions in crime data
- Any crime, accident, personal injury, or property damage experienced while using ShieldNav's navigation services
- Failure of the app to alert you to a crime or hazard
- Decisions made based on route comparisons or badges
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.
10. Contact Us
If you have questions about our crime data sources, methodology, or this disclaimer, please contact us:
- Email: support@shieldnav.com
- Privacy Policy: shieldnav.com/privacy
- Terms of Use: shieldnav.com/terms
To report an error in crime data displayed in the app, use the in-app feedback tool (Settings → Development Feedback, type "Problem"; requires an account), or email support@shieldnav.com with "Data Issue" in the subject line.