In the past few months, there seems to be an increase in reports and video footage of police using excessive force especially when it is uncalled for, and especially in situations that might not warrant it. As such many have turned to recording law enforcement encounters as a means to provide evidence of such events taking place.
Now for those who are unsure as to whether or not the police used excessive force, the ACLU has recently launched the Mobile Justice CA app for both iOS and Android in which users can use to record footage and create incident reports, after which it will be sent to an ACLU affiliate to be reviewed and to determine if there is any misconduct.
What makes this app special is that the footage will be uploaded to the ACLU meaning that if the police were to grab your mobile device and confiscate it or break it, it wouldn’t matter as the video is stored somewhere else. There are even checklists in the app to help the person filming the video determine if maybe the police officer was being unnecessarily rude or threatening, such as pulling out a gun, nightstick, taser, and etc.
Now the ACLU is not the first to have launched such an app. ACLU chapters in Oregon and New York have released similar apps, but this particular version is aimed at California residents. Those interested in downloading it can head on over to the iTunes App Store or Google Play for the download.