This idea would take advantage of the fact that any cellphone that's turned on can be located within 50 feet using current technology. It would work something like this.
Suppose your car breaks down and you've already called a road service company that said they'd be there in the typical hour or so. In the meantime another car pulls over and out jumps one or more suspicious-looking characters. You dial 922 which then sends a special ringtone to every active cellphone within 100 yards or so. The pre-recorded message it sent would say something like - 'Possible danger. Please notice everything.'
Or suppose you're walking through a park and you come across a couple that's having a loud argument which looks like it might turn violent at any minute. You dial 933 which sends a different ringtone to every cellphone in the area with the message - 'Domestic quarrel. Please notice everything.' Hopefully it would draw enough eyewitnesses to keep the situation from turning violent.
After discussing this idea with a couple of other people we ended up with a split decision over its usefulness. Some said they'd never dial one of the numbers because it would be more likely to draw negative people to the scene than it would be to draw positive people. Others thought more positive people would show up. Personally I fall into the latter group, thinking it would act more like a mobile Neighborhood Watch Committee than an all-call for nutcases.
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