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Subject To a "Stop and Frisk"? There's an App For That
lightbox32 writes "The New York Civil Liberties Union released a free smartphone application on Wednesday that allows people to record videos of and report police 'stop and frisk' activity, a practice widely denounced by civil rights groups as mostly targeting minorities and almost never resulting in arrests. The app was thoroughly criticized by the New York Police Department, which said that the tool might prove useful for criminals."
Weren't there cases of people getting in more trouble recording their police encounters?
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
America stops and randomly frisks people in the streets?
Even Indian cops rape people, but its not legal
(rape!=frisk, I know that)
Stop and Frisk is also widely praised by law enforcement and anti-crime groups as deterring crimes and keeping communities safe. Why didn't you put that in the summary?
Why is this story even here? There's an app for everything these days, and you decide to post about this. I sense somebody is pushing a political agenda here.
If you've done nothing wrong officer, you have nothing to worry about, do you?
Please do not read this sig. Thank you.
While it may serve some use with the targeted person(audio), this seems targeted primarily towards the witnesses to the act.
Twitter supports and protects racists - by smearing their critics with the "Hate Speech" label.
Liberty activists in New Hampshire have had a system set up like this for years, Porcupine 411. It's just a basic audio recording and distribution system, so it works on anyone's cell phone, not just smart phones. Call the number and, typically within less than a minute after you hang up, every subscriber receives either an MMS message on their phone, or an email with an MP3 attachment.
Liberty in your lifetime
On first blush, the thought of using an app like this sounds good: it keeps the police on their best behavior, because they know they're being recorded. The problem is this app doesn't just record, it aggregates recordings, and as we all know, once you have aggregate data, you can do all sorts of useful things with it, such as predict where the police are, a handy thing to know if you are trying to avoid them. The more data is aggregated, the more valuable a target it becomes. A better solution would be for the app to record police actions only on the device, and to have any reporting go through ordinary, public communication channels to lower its profile.
"We receive as friendly that which agrees with, we resist with dislike that which opposes us" - Faraday
I'm black, and I grew up in areas commonly referred to as "the ghetto" by outsiders. Luckily, I took school seriously, and I was able to escape this environment, unlike many of the people I grew up with.
Let's cut the bullshit, though. In most major American cities, it is blacks and Hispanics committing the majority of the crimes. I don't like this fact, but I can't deny it. Nobody else should, either, regardless of his or her background.
I completely understand why the police may target blacks and Hispanics. It's not about race, though. It's about targeting those who are most likely to commit crimes. It's about targeting those whose culture, not race, emphasizes violence, substance abuse, prostitution and crime.
I don't buy the line of reasoning that it's poverty that causes these people to be more inclined to partake in criminal behavior. I grew up in that very same poverty, and the only thing I did differently than many of my peers was to study hard, and avoid drugs and gangs. It was that simple. In fact, if they just avoided spending huge sums of money on drugs, many of them would no longer be poor!
I'm black, and I've traveled extensively throughout America and many other nations. I have never run into problems with the police anywhere. But perhaps that's because I don't go out of my way to wear baggy pants with the waist at my ankles, I don't wear a straight-brimmed baseball hat with the price tag still on it, I don't drive around blaring hip hop or rap music, I don't choose to talk like I'm mentally disabled, and I don't partake in crime.
Many of the people who whine and moan about being targeted by the police merely need to clean up their acts. If they don't act like criminals, and act civilized instead, then they won't raise the suspicion of the police and wouldn't be stopped. Yes, it's that simple.
It's a useful thing to be able to videotape cops. It's a check on them ABUSING THEIR POSITION, which they often do. It is also allowed by Law. I'd go one step further than that and say that it's an obligation to self to do all one can to protect oneself since NOBODY ELSE IS GOING TO DO IT FOR YOU. Do not ever kid yourself that anyone will.
Operation Guillotine is in effect.
The article alluded to the ACLU keeping the up loaders info along with the video. If that's the case, the person filming could conceivably become a witness and the video used in a court case. As was noted, that could help law enforcement (or defendant claiming police abuse) defending a stop or developing a case against someone who turned out to have committed a crime.
I'm a consultant - I convert gibberish into cash-flow.
"The app was thoroughly criticized by the New York Police Department, which said that the tool might prove useful for criminals."
Food and water might prove useful to criminals as well, let's ban that as well.
A pencil and a piece of paper are useful for criminal activity. So are food, shelter, oxygen, roads and cars. Ban everything!
Sorry, but gray text on gray background is making my eyes bleed.
an app that can record video! wait...can't every phone from the last 10 years do that?
It sounds like someone needs to do their policing inside their private residence, instead of in public. If you just leave a cop sitting on the front seat of your car where any citizen can see it, you shouldn't expect your cop habit to remain a private matter.
As copyright owner of this comment, I authorize everyone to defeat any technological measure which limits access to it.
Agreed 100%. Chris Rock did put it quite well years ago - How not to get your ass kicked by the police.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8JuBSkYTK74
The article alluded to the ACLU keeping the up loaders info along with the video. If that's the case, the person filming could conceivably become a witness and the video used in a court case. As was noted, that could help law enforcement (or defendant claiming police abuse) defending a stop or developing a case against someone who turned out to have committed a crime.
Actually, it was the Police Commissioner saying that:
“It's one thing when providers learn what pizza or movies you like. It’s another to create a database of stops and arrests by police,” [Deputy Police Commissioner Paul Browne] said in an email statement. “On the plus side, the videos may capture images of suspects in the vicinity of a stop and be helpful to the police in that regard. Presumably, the NYCLU database will [include] the names of the videographers and provide a rich vein of potential witnesses to crimes being investigated by the NYPD and other authorities.”
Translation: we're coming after the videographers. You upload a video, expect a knock at your door from a hostile police officer, demanding to know what you saw, why you were in the area, maybe you were part of the crime, what's your alibi, mind if I look around your house, we're going to need you to come downtown and answer some questions, etc.
I'm getting really tired of hearing that $technology or $application_of_technology may be "useful to criminals".
In a supposedly free country (yeah, I know, who am I kidding?), shouldn't we always err on the side of liberty instead of trying to "pre-regulate" criminal activity?
They get to beat up JUDGES with impunity, and nobody on the force sees anything. Sure, you can record all this data. The ACLU will do press releases Maybe they'll even get a judgement in Federal court. Won't stop the activity, because the state courts (including the one run by the judge who got judo-chopped) believe in the infallibility of cops.
Criminals: Persons not employed by the NYPD.
I used to give 'em the benefit of the doubt, but fsck the police.
If they are doing their job and following all the rules then it won't bother them that the people are recording the video. It could lead to a raise if their performance is excellent. Or if you are breaking the law as an officer then you should lose your job. I don't trust anyone anymore. I was thinking about something like this... people need to record every TSA worker as they try to violate our rights and our virginity when they x-ray rape us.
A free and independent press is what is supposed to keep the police in check. The press are the eyes and ears of the citizenry. Sadly the press has failed to do this. So now we need apps like this.
I live in the toughest part of Minneapolis which is a fairly large city. It is bad enough so I have a carry permit and carry my pistol whenever I go out, even to mow the lawn. I've had to go for my weapon to avoid being robbed in the busy parking lot of a local store.
Watching drug deals going down is a normal thing to see, some bus shelters serve almost as drive through windows. The weekly police reports always reveal multiple felon in possession of firearms charges, guns taken away from juveniles, and people arrested for other crimes having weapons. Every week there are people shot, stabbed, and gravely injured.
I see police stops and searches all the time and sometimes stopped and filmed them. I keep a respectful distance, always make it apparent that I am taking pictures or video. I never try to interfere with or distract the officers while they are doing their job. I've never been asked to stop taking pictures, I've never been asked to step back or leave.
There are bloggers in this same neighborhood who have not had the same experience, some have had their phones/cameras seized as evidence, been threatened with arrest, and other things (or so they say on their blogs). But I have to say, these bloggers are loudmouths in their blogs and I have to believe that they probably push the envelope in real life as well.
The definition of a criminal:
1. Anyone who records police officers.
2. Anyone who gets stopped and frisked.
"Tucking pant legs into socks or boots and tucking shirts into pants help keep ticks on the outside of clothing. If you'll be outside for an extended period of time, ..."
http://originsofhealth.com/articles/tips-for-preventing-tick-bites/
Stupid is as stupid does.
WTF do you think is going on in the jungle, er, inner city?
"Confirmation bias is a great, quick way to increase survival rates in the wild & bring together tribes."
NYC is "just" doing a Terry Stop. As far as I can tell, it can be done legally, but probably isn't done legally very often. How you react to it is the important part. It's very unfortunate that we need to teach the Terry Stop in our schools, but if we did it would certainly lower the crime rate.
Todays guest is the head of the NYCPD bound and gagged in the chair of truth.
***mmruffrarr4r*
Whacks guest with metal ruler SILENCE!
Now how about a stainless steel trash can, can it prove useful to criminals? Lets find out.
Picks up trash can and swings it and smashes it into guests face.
That's one.
Could bleach prove useful to criminals?
Empties gallon of bleach on guest paying particular attention to the eyes
That's two
Could a sausage prove useful to criminals.
Turns guest over revealing hole on chair, squealing is heard
That's three
And we will be back after these important messages.
It goes further than that. If the police are telling the truth about what happened. If their story is not made up. Then the video would help the prosecution with its case. Not hurt it. As I've said before, my state used to have a policy of video taping every DUI roadblock, but they stopped because it hurt the prosecution more than it helped them. The videos tended to corroborate the story of the defendant. It is contemptible that we as a society do not force the police to record every interaction they have with the public. If they are obeying the law themselves and are making legitimate, by-the-book arrests then the video will help them. If they just want to beat or kill someone for mouthing off to them or calling them a pig or giving them the finger or just disrespecting them then it does tend to restrict their 'freedom'. It might even dissuade some sadists from becoming cops in the first place. They might actually be forced to join a private criminal gang instead of a state sponsored one in order to engage in violence like they watch on TV.
Quite an experience to live in fear, isn't it? That's what it is to be a slave.
Police car mounted infra-red LED's have been photographed in Montreal during the current student uprising. The LED's blast out infra-red, which while invisible to the human eye will overload digital camera sensors if they're not equipped with an IR filter (virtually all inexpensive cameras are not). The picture I saw was taken on a bus, the view out the sides of the bus were unaffected, but the windshield was completely white. The person taking the camera said the screen went white whenever the cop car was in its field of view.
Long story short, in Montreal at least, cops are clearly under orders to abuse and harass protesters. RIP Canada.
War as we knew it was obsolete
Nothing could beat complete denial
- Emily Haines
Great, so you've accounted for approximately 1 out of every ten stop and frisks. The rest were just suspicionless violations of individual rights.
"Cursed is he who rises early in the morning..." Isiah 5:11
The latest iPhone has an IR filter built in (hence its ability to take decent shots with the sun in the picture). I would assume it will ignore attempts to generate overexposure through IR.
What strikes me as ironic is that the organisations fighting transparency in how they exercise their privileges are the same that tell you you should have nothing to hide..
IMHO, there is never a valid argument not to supervise police activity, even when the recordings are not immediately made public. Not only can it highlight abuse, it can also show where they've done everything right. That too is important.
Insert
Okay, this pretty much answers the question for me.
A quick review of that website and it looks like it can do as advertised - hit record and the result is uploaded instantly. Cost is $4.99 .. noting that they currently have a free trial.
Thank you! This does point out one flaw - in order to be able to upload videos to the net, to prevent loss of data if someone takes your phone, you need a place to upload *to*.
Will have to try this.
Thank you!
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Since so many breaking the law wear police uniforms, then wearing a police uniform MUST be reason to stop and arrest the person wearing it!
Heck, we also have WHITE COLLAR CRIME! That means ANYONE wearing a white collar shirt MUST be liable to criminality!
It's all so clear now!!!