Believe you are witnessing an unlawful police stop and want to record the moment? There’s an app for that, courtesy of the New York Civil Liberties Union.
The group 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 unjustified stops that they say mostly target minorities and almost never results in an arrest.
The app was thoroughly criticized by the New York Police Department, which said that the tool might prove useful for criminals.
The “Stop and Frisk Watch” phone app is meant for bystanders watching a police stop, not those subject to it, the NYCLU said. Now available on Android phones, an iPhone version will launch later in the summer. It comes in English and Spanish.
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