While perhaps not a direct issue for most people, police abuse of U.S. citizens based on a number of different criteria and for numerous different reasons seems like it has been a growing problem in the last few months to a year. With the advancement of smartphones and the power of the technology people now hold in their pockets, the capability to record police actions is more present now than it has ever been in the past. The ACLU, (American Civil Liberties Union) has come up with an application to assist people in keeping police conduct “in check” while also giving them useful information about their civil rights. The app which is called ‘Mobile Justice – California’ was created by the Southern California arm of the ACLU.
While people don’t need an application like this one to record police activity, (any smartphone with a camera has this capability with the stock camera app) it offers features that those who will find this useful to have on hand might appreciate, like the ability to save any recorded videos used through the app to the cloud so in the event that the phone gets damaged at any point before the video can be directed to the proper channels, the video is still safe. It also provides people with the necessary information about civil rights pertaining to any specific incident and is a simple one tap away by hitting a button in the bottom left corner that allows people to be aware of their rights during law enforcement encounters.
There is a small list of rights accessible within the app itself, and users can tap on a “more rights” button to access the ACLU’s full library of content from their website, which takes users out of the application. To record, users need to simply open up the app and hit the “record” button to begin the video, after which the video is sent to the ACLU where it’s stored. If any users are interested in checking to see if there are any nearby events, the Witness section of the app can provide nearby location alerts from others app users. Individuals can also report incidents on their own into the ACLU using this application. Mobile Justice – California is free for all users should they feel any need to have it on hand.