On Friday, the American Civil Liberties Union of Pennsylvania (ACLU-PA) launched Mobile Justice PA — a free smartphone app that gives users the ability to record and upload video of public interactions with the police directly to ACLU-PA. The app will give people the opportunity to document any public activity involving police. It also provides information about individuals’ rights when it comes to recording interactions with the cop. The app was also launched in other states includingArizona, Georgia, Maryland, Minnesota, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Virginia and Washington DC, and is currently availablein California, Colorado, Missouri, New York and Oregon. RELATED:PA State Reps just made cops matter more than the civilians they kill Audio and video files recorded with the app are automatically sent to the ACLU-PA and saved to their database. This is a great feature to have especially if the mobile device is destroyed or seized by the police, according the ACLU. “We’ve seen countless examples of the importance of video recordings during police interactions,” said Reggie Shuford, executive director of the ACLU of Pennsylvania in a statement. “This app empowers ordinary people to monitor police officers and hold them accountable.” In addition to recording exchanges with law enforcement officials so audio and video of the incident can automatically be sent to the ACLU, users can use the app to alert other users to give them the option to go to a specific location to document. The app also allows users to fill out a report of what’s happening and send it directly to the ACLU, and provides themwith helpfulinformation about their rights when engaging with the police.
The app is available and can be downloaded for free at Apple’s App Store and on Google Play for Android devices. For more information about the Mobile Justice PA app, visit, www.aclupa.org/mobile.