In July 2015, a fatal shooting took place two houses down from mine. Fortunately, only the shooter was killed, but only after firing off nearly 100 rounds. It was a terrifying moment for our little neighborhood, which is typically swarming with children playing at the park across the street. I was on my way home with my wife and kids at the time. If we had taken our usual route home, we would have driven right by the shooter, probably realizing too late what was going on. The only thing that kept us from coming within feet of the shooter was a text message from our neighbor. That text message may have saved our lives.<p>After this incident, I was thinking about how many other close calls might have been avoided if everyone in the neighborhood had received that same text message. That&#x27;s when I thought of Hoodwink. The concept is simple: if you see something suspicious in your neighborhood, just open the Hoodwink app and anonymously report what you saw. No usernames, no passwords. Nearby neighbors who have the Hoodwink app will be notified, and they&#x27;ll have the option to confirm your report. You&#x27;ll also be notified if a neighbor decides to call the police, so you can rest assured that help is on the way.<p>As many of you, I write software for a living, and the last thing I need is another project. But Hoodwink feels different—it seems more urgent than some of my other projects. Nevertheless, I&#x27;m going to gauge how much interest there is in the app, and if it looks promising, I may do a Kickstarter campaign to get it off the ground. If you&#x27;d like to show your support, you can share your email address on the website (hoodwink.com). We&#x27;ll only send you updates about the app.