(Reuters) The California civil liberties group ACLU released a mobile app on Thursday that allows users to record videos of potential police misconduct on their phones and store the footage on the agency's servers.
The California chapter of the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) said the app will be able to send the video to the service even if the phone has been confiscated or destroyed by police.
The launch of the ACLU comes in response to the brutality of US law enforcement, which as we have seen recently, uses deadly force, especially against African-Americans.
“It is vital that everyone understands what is being done by police officers, because everything that is being done is being done in the name of the public,” said Hector Villagra, executive director of the ACLU of Southern California.
The app is aimed at residents of the most populous US state, but the ACLU is preparing to launch similar mobile apps in at least five other states, including New York, Missouri and Mississippi.
Mobile Justice CA will also send notifications to everyone using the app who is in the area where something is happening, giving them the opportunity to quickly run as reinforcements to the person recording the video of an illegal police act.
A spokesman for the California Police Association declined to immediately comment on the application.
In the past, police advocates have expressed concern that police videotaping might interfere with officers' duties in an already tense situation.
