The ACLU’s New Police Tape App Lets You Discreetly Record Police Interactions
There are plenty of stories out there of photographers allegedly being mistreated at the hands of the police; unfortunately, this mistreatment often includes the destruction of any evidence of the altercation. But the New Jersey ACLU is hoping that their new Police Tape app helps people more discretely record these interactions for future use in court.
The app is currently only available for Android Devices, with an iOS version in the works (but seeming somewhat unlikely given Apple’s strict approval standards). With it you can both look up your rights during an encounter, and discretely record audio or video without the police ever having to know.
Here’s an interesting little stop motion video introduction to the app:
So if you ever find yourself (or see someone else) taking pictures well within your rights and you think that the police may be treating you unfairly, just launch the app and click either record audio or record video. The app will then hide itself from general inspection and can even send a copy of the recording directly to an ACLU-operated server, which is protected against police seizure and deletion. To find out more head over to Google Play and grab yourself a copy free of charge.
