Time to Police the Police with App

Smartphones just got smarter. Not only do they allow you to check your email, Facebook and Twitter accounts, now you can ‘police the police.’ The American Civil Liberties Union New Jersey Chapter (ACLU-NJ) has just released ‘Police Tape’, an Android phone app that allows people to securely and discreetly record and store their interactions with police, as well as provide legal information about citizens’ rights when interacting with law officers. “This app provides an essential tool for police accountability,’ (ACLU-NJ) Executive Director Deborah Jacobs said in a statement to Wired.com. With this app, citizens are empowered to place a check on police power directly”. All phones have cameras, but Police Tape has a ‘stealth mode’ that allows the app to disappear from the screen once the recording starts, to dissuade the police from stopping citizens recording. There is also an audio mode, a link to a page explaining citizens rights, and a way to send the video directly to the ACLU for backup storage and analysis of possible civil liberties violations. The app is currently only available in New Jersey, where it is legal to tape police encounters.