Fair Play: Stealth app allows citizens to stealthily record police performing their constitutional duties
- Post 06 July 2012
- By James Nye | Daily Mail
James NyeA civil rights group has released a new smartphone 'stealth' app which allows users to record video of police encounters without the officer's knowledge.
Called the 'Police Tape', the app makes the phone act as if it is off when recording video displaying a blank screen and when audio is being recorded, the app automatically minimises and disappears.
Designed by the New Jersey branch of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) to be used as a deterent against wayward and abusive police officers, the state follows New York with the creation of a police surveillance app.
The New Jersey branch of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) has launched a new app which will allow the public to video police secretly
'Police often videotape civilians and civilians have a constitutionally protected right to videotape police,' said Alexander Shalom of the ACLU to the Star Ledger.
'When people know they're being watched, they tend to behave well.'
The app, which will be first available for Android users and then iPhones towards the end of the month has a simple instructional menu panel which offers legal advice, and then the option to record video or audio.
'This app provides an essential tool for police accountability,' said Deborah Jacobs, executive diretor of the ACLU of New Jersey.
Designed to record even though the phone acts as if it is off, the 'Police Tape' is the second 'stealth' app launched in the U.S.
Last month the New York Civil Liverties Union launched a similar smartphone app called 'Stop and Frisk Watch' to counteract what it feels are controversial practices by the New York Police Department.
The signature feature of the 'Police Tape' app is the instant uploading of any recorded content automatically to the ACLU server.
This is to combat any deletions by police officers who have been videoed or recorded saying something or doing something that they wouldn't have wanted committed to tape.
However, police groups have greeted the new app cautiously.
'Guys are basically told, conduct yourself as if you're always being recorded, that's the safest way,' said Chris Tyminski, president of a police association in Essex County in New Jersey
Some have been critical of the app saying that if people rush to their phones when confronted by police it could lead to dangerous situations developing
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"Question all which is 'taught,' dig deeper, think clearly, respond profusely. Conformity is the antithesis of free thought and self-determination." -- Standard Pearls