Real-Time, Crowd-Sourced, Geo-Location Based System for Enhancing Personal Safety

A method for enhancing personal safety, the method comprising the steps of:

• collecting data representative of the level of personal safety at a plurality of geographical locations;
• associating the data representative of the level of personal safety at each geographical location with geographical coordinate data uniquely identifying the geographical location;
• receiving first input corresponding to a starting location of a route to be traveled by a person;
• receiving second input corresponding to an ending location of the route to be traveled by the person;
• and
• determining a safest route for travel by the person between the starting location and ending location based at least in part on the collected data and associated geographical coordinate data.

A method for searching a geographical area for a missing person or article, the method comprising the steps of:

• receiving information defining a plurality of geographical sub-areas of a geographical area to be searched for the presence of a missing person or article;
• assigning a person having a mobile device to search a particular geographical sub-area;
• continually determining the geographical location of the mobile device relative to the particular geographical sub-area;
• and
• displaying on the mobile device a map of the particular geographical sub-area and a marker on the map corresponding to the then current geographical location of the mobile device relative to the particular geographical sub-area.

A method for enhancing personal safety, the method comprising the steps of:

• associating a plurality of event attendees for an event held at an event venue as event crowd members of an event crowd;
• receiving information pertaining to occurrences at or near the event venue that have an influence on the personal safety of event crowd members, wherein the received information includes the geo-locations of the occurrences;
• and
• communicating the received information to event crowd members.