We-Watch

We-Watch / Canadian digital canvassing

Find the witnesses.
Bring the information together.

A witness, a shop camera, a passing vehicle. Useful information can be close to an incident—and hard to find. We-Watch was developed to connect those contributions for victim and police follow-up.

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Open for deployment and partnership discussions. Platform restoration and validation are required before a new deployment.

Explore the work

How digital canvassing works West Queen West pilot Public references

Digital canvassing means using a targeted request to invite relevant people to share what they saw or recorded. We-Watch’s intended workflow brings those contributions into a shared incident record.

01

Ask a relevant question.

Start with the incident’s time, place and type. Review the report before requesting information from relevant participants.

02

Make it possible to help.

Invite first-hand accounts, photos and video. Keep each contribution connected to the event it describes.

03

Give follow-up a starting point.

Organize the material for the victim and responsible police service, with agreed access and delivery arrangements.

See the workflow

02 / In the field — Toronto, 2023–24

West Queen West.
A real place to start.

A business district pilot tested both the software and the harder work of getting people to participate. The lessons still matter.

Read the pilot case study
159Unique accounts reported
30Qualified incident reports

Company-reported historical activity in the pilot summary dated 18 March 2024. These figures measure participation, not crime reduction or investigative outcomes.

A public Mitacs project record also describes the We-Watch / West Queen West pilot.

View the Mitacs record

03 / Choose your starting point

What would you like to make possible?

01

For a community

BIAs, property operators, campuses and municipalities: explore a defined area, a participation plan and a measurable pilot.

02

For public safety

Review witness requests, information access and the handoff into an existing operational process.

03

For a strategic partner

Assess technology licensing, commercialization, acquisition or an IP transaction.

A credible pilot needs more than sign-ups. It needs a clear purpose, someone to run it and a way to judge whether the information is useful.

Use our planning checklist to define the community, moderation, recipient workflow and evaluation before discussing technology.

Use the pilot planning checklist

Start with a place. Or a possibility.

Tell us the community or workflow you know, and where information gets lost.

Discuss a deployment