Community Corner
Is Videotaping Police By Using New ACLU App a Good Idea?
An ACLU chapter has come up with a smart phone app that allows citizens to record and store video and audio of police encounters. Do you think it is right to make this app available to citizens?
Dacula Patch reported recently on a free smartphone app that the New Jersey chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union has launched that allows citizens to record and store both video and audio of police encounters.
“This app provides an essential tool for police accountability,” said ACLU-NJ Executive Director Deborah Jacobs in a statement posted on the chapter's website. “Too often incidents of serious misconduct go unreported because citizens don’t feel that they will be believed. Here, the technology empowers citizens to place a check on police power directly.”
The app operates in "stealth" mode. Once recording begins, the app disappears from the screen "to prevent any attempt by police to squelch the recording."
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The “Police Tape” app is available for free download for Android at the moment at http://www.aclu-nj.org/yourrights/the-app-place/. An Apple version is expected to follow.
Do you think this is a good idea? Is it acceptable to secretly tape the police?
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