As law enforcement agencies across the country grapple with issue of police body cameras, the ACLU has taken matters into its own hands.
The Atlantic reports that the ACLU of Southern California and the Oakland-based Ella Baker Center for Human Rights have released an app called Mobile Justice CA that uploads all mobile video footage to ACLU servers as it's being captured.
"Even if the phone is destroyed, the video will survive," according to The Atlantic.
The free app, which has had nearly 40,000 downloads since its release on Friday, is available for both iOS and Android devices and, according to
iTunes, is available in English, German, Japanese, Korean, Polish, Simplified Chinese, Spanish and Traditional Chinese.
The multipurpose app also includes a "witness" button, "which a user can press to notify other app users within a three-mile radius that they are observing a police interaction," according to The Atlantic.
"It also lets users file written reports with a local ACLU office and includes versions of the ACLU's 'Know Your Rights' guides for photographers, protesters, and citizens."
iTunes touts the app as a way to "restore justice" and "put a check on law enforcement misconduct wherever, whenever."
ACLU affiliates nationwide have developed similar apps that comply with individual state laws. With New York's 2012 "Stop and Frisk Watch," the phone stops filming when it is shaken, according to
The Nation. New Jersey's "Police Tape" only transmits the video to the ACLU if the user chooses to do so.
"This app will help serve as a check on abuse," ACLU of Southern California Executive Director Hector Villagra told The Nation. It will "allow ordinary citizens to record and document any interaction with law enforcement."
Numerous high-profile police encounters have been captured on bystander cellphone video, including the recent arrest of Freddie Gray in Baltimore. Gray suffered a severe spinal cord injury while in police custody, an incident that sparked days of riots. Six officers have been charged in the case.
Last month, bystander video recorded a deputy U.S. marshal smashing the cellphone of a California woman filming the officer responding to reports of a biker gang.
A neighbor caught the incident and
posted it on YouTube, sparking an investigation.
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