STREETSBORO, Ohio — Northeast Ohio police departments are warning residents about a mobile app called CrimeRadar.
Officers said it may be spreading fake and misleading crime alerts by misinterpreting police radio traffic.
Streetsboro school incident
Streetsboro Mayor Glenn Broska said the app almost set off a panic in his community after reporting shots were fired at an elementary school.
The problem? That's not what happened at the school.
"To me, that was irresponsible, Broska said. "That's like yelling fire in a movie theater. It really, truly is."
Broska said the incident didn't involve firearms. He said a kindergarten student accidentally pulled the fire alarm.
However, the app's post said, "Firearms discharged at elementary school in Streetsboro."
Broska said Streetsboro's police chief plastered the word "fake" over the post in big red letters and shared it on the department's Facebook page.
Broska said he shared the information on his social media pages.
"We were able to keep any panic from starting from it," Broska said.
Twinsburg and Cleveland police also heard what happened and also posted warnings on their Facebook pages.
The description on Google Play said it maps emergency radio reports so users can monitor nearby incidents.
Broska said it appears to use artificial intelligence to turn them into breaking news alerts.
But Broska said early reports are often wrong.
"The people that grab stuff off the scanner and just blurt it out - that's not the greatest thing in the world," Broska said.
CrimeRadar's response
CrimeRadar sent News 5 the following response:
"Thank you for reaching out to us on this issue. Yes, this was a CrimeRadar post, and we can confirm there was a serious transcription error.
What happened: On December 9, 2025 at 12:29, our system generated summary posts from two emergency calls related to an incident at the elementary school in Streetsboro. In one of these, our system misinterpreted the scanner audio – misunderstanding “fire alarm” as “firearm". As a result, there were two posts about the same event: one suggesting a fire alarm at the school and the other suggesting that firearms had been discharged.
On December 10, we received user feedback flagging the incorrect post. Our system automatically deleted the post and triggered an internal investigation.
Our response: We understand the serious impact that a false report of shots fired at a school can have on a community. We apologize for any distress or disruption this caused.
We have enhanced our audio processing protocols to help prevent this type of transcription error in the future. We’re also preparing to release features that will allow agencies and community members to directly submit corrections and add context to posts.
About CrimeRadar: We launched CrimeRadar with the goal of making vital, real-time public safety information accessible to everyone, giving communities knowledge previously available only to first responders. That information is presented as an interactive safety map of real-time incidents, such as police callouts, highway accidents and wildfires.
The platform monitors publicly available emergency service audio feeds and uses AI to transcribe radio communications into clear, accessible transcripts and to generate summaries. Every post links to the original first-responder radio feed, allowing users to verify information and hear the context themselves. Our team works continuously to improve our transcription accuracy while maintaining transparency, so communities can understand what’s happening in their neighborhoods."
