Apple’s iPhone can now become a “civilian” bodycam that records police interactions thanks to the iOS 12 Shortcuts app unveiled last month.
The shortcuts feature is designed to allow iPhone users to create custom commands in Siri that combine a series of actions or launch apps accordingly, The Verge reported.
The app also allows developers to launch their own customized Siri shortcuts and phrases.
“It seemed to me that if you're getting pulled over it couldn't hurt to have a recording of the incident,” said Reddit user Robert Petersen who has created a shortcut called Police, which triggers a series of actions. “The police these days in many places have body cams, so this could be the civilian equivalent.”
His shortcut triggers a series of actions when initiated.
The user has to say “Hey Siri, I’m getting pulled over,” which will then send a text message out to a friend to let them know the police have pulled the user over, Fox News reported.
The location, latitude and longitude information is sent to the predetermined contact via text while the iPhone beings recording using the front-facing camera.
From there, the video can be sent to their Dropbox or iCloud account.
“It just seemed a good idea to empower the individual citizen to have a record over what happens during a stop to remove any ‘he said/she said’ scenarios,” Petersen told Fox News. “I honestly didn’t think the idea would prove as popular as it has, the response has been extreme[ly] positive and more than a bit overwhelming!”
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