A Bloomington startup called Guardian4D has landed its first customer in Minnesota law enforcement. The Robbinsdale Police Department went live with the company's Bridge911 app on July 6, 2026, becoming the first agency in the state to deploy it.
Guardian4D was founded by Jeff Gottstein, a former police officer turned software engineer, and fellow software engineer Paul Case. The company is headquartered at 215 E 78th St in Bloomington and describes its mission as building tools to help public safety agencies respond faster and more transparently.
Bridge911 replaces tip411, the tip-and-alert service Robbinsdale had used for years to push out snow-emergency and traffic notices and take anonymous tips. The new app keeps those functions but adds real-time video calling with officers and a feature letting residents verify that someone claiming to be a Robbinsdale police officer actually is one. It also includes a bulletin board for safety tips and success stories, mass notifications and anonymous tip submission — and it is not a substitute for calling 911 in an emergency.
The switch wasn't cheaper. Robbinsdale is paying $6,300 for the first year of Bridge911, compared with $4,900 it had paid for a two-year tip411 contract. Police Captain John Elder said the added cost was worth it. “So this is more expensive, but we believe that the functionality and the ability for people to verify and have direct contact with our police officers [in] real-time warranted that,” he said.
The app is free for residents and available on the App Store and Google Play, with sign-up instructions at robbinsdalemn.gov/policeapp. Guardian4D is also building a second product, Storyboard, which synchronizes video from doorbell cameras, dash cams and body-worn cameras into a single timeline for investigators, and its website lists a related transparency tool for agencies to publicly share incident media. The company says it hopes to expand beyond Robbinsdale to other departments, including New Hope and Crystal.