Aidan
Visit Aidan websiteWe build Aidan for governments and public organizations that want to be reachable without adding load to their teams.
A 24/7 digital police officer.
Most of the questions people have for their local police never get asked. They are not urgent enough to justify calling 101, and walking into a police station feels like a lot for something small: a lost identity card, a neighbor playing music too loud, a suspicious email that might be a scam. So the question sits unasked, and the distance between a community and its police grows a little wider.
Politiezone Rivierenland wanted to close that distance. As part of a federally supported program to strengthen proximity policing, the zone set out to make its officers reachable where people already are: online, at any hour, without an appointment. The result is Aidan, a digital neighborhood officer we designed and built to handle non-urgent police matters around the clock.
The hardest part of a system like this is not the conversation. It is trust. A police service cannot afford to give citizens information that is almost right.
What Aidan does
People can ask about anything the zone is responsible for, from traffic issues and neighbor disputes to cybercrime and reporting nuisance. Aidan listens, gives clear and relevant information, and points people toward the right next step.
Conversations are anonymous, and they read like talking to a staff member, only online. For anything urgent, the message stays unambiguous: call 101.
The Aidan App
Aidan lives in two places, and the difference between them comes down to one question: does Aidan know who you are?
On the web, the answer is always no. Every conversation is anonymous, with no login and no account.
The native app makes a different trade. By signing in with myGov, you identify yourself, and that identity unlocks the things anonymity cannot support. Once Aidan knows who you are, it can do more than inform and refer. It can act.
Identified users can file direct reports of theft, violence, and other crimes straight from the chat, instead of being sent elsewhere to start over.
The app is location-aware, so a question or a report carries the context of where you are without you having to describe it. You can send photos and videos inside the conversation, which lets Aidan give more specific advice and clearer instructions when words alone fall short. And because the app knows your area, it can send push notifications when something in your neighborhood needs your attention.
