A colleague sent me the link to the new ACLU App designed to allow citizens to more easily record police on their cellphones and to make it more difficult for police to delete the recording. It is a bold action in light of the trend of police arresting citizens who videotape them in public and efforts like prosecutors like Anita Alvarez in Cook County to put citizens in jail for such recording.
The new app called “Police Tape” that lets users secretly record police encounters by recording audio and video discretely with a stealth mode. The camera will not show an outward sign of recording. It is also difficult for officers to find and delete the videos — as has occurred in a number of cases. Citizens can also send a copy to the ACLU-NJ for backup storage and analysis of possible civil liberties violations.
I have previously written about the first amendment right to videotape officers. This app helps secure that right and is a creative approach to the ongoing abuse of citizens.
Source: CBS
Oro Lee;
The question is simply this: THEY should be allowed to do it to US anytime they want, but because they are LEO, we should not be allowed to return the favor? I think not.
Rafflaw, CCTV/street cameras are not the only thing citizens have to be uneasy about:
“Drive-by Scanning: Officials Expand Use and Dose of Radiation for Security Screening”
“… X-ray scanners have been tested at ferry crossings, for visitor entries at the Pentagon and for long-range detection of suicide bombers at special events. And drawing the ire of privacy groups, Customs and the New York Police Department have deployed unmarked X-ray vans that can drive to a location and look inside vehicles for drugs and explosives. …”
http://www.propublica.org/article/drive-by-scanning-officials-expand-use-and-dose-of-radiation-for-security-s
and this:
“Report: Police Want to Use These X-Ray Scanners on New York City Streets”
“According to CBS News, The NYPD, along with the U.S. Department of Defense, are investigating an emerging technology that can detect concealed weapons on the human body via a special scanner placed in police vehicles.”
http://www.theblaze.com/stories/report-police-want-to-use-these-x-ray-scanners-on-new-york-city-streets/
Two young people in New York City are openly being harassed for having turned their cameras on the NYC police. They parked their cars in front of their house ostensibly to show they’re there, telling the woman there was a 911 call. The cars get stuck behind the police cars for no good reason at all. The police also distributed flyers/pamphlets with the faces of these two American citizens in the neighborhood (which looked a lot like mugshots) and warning the neighbors of their ‘bad’ behavior even though it is legal to videotape police in NYC. Reported by The Nation and the link is here: (cut and paste ) http://www.thenation.com/blog/168729/nypd-brands-occupy-wall-street-couple-professional-agitators#
Oro Lee,
I agree. Stop breathing immediately.
BarkingDog,
I think you identity two different topics: unbridled recording of law enforcement officers; unbridled broadcast of such information.
I have no problem with the recording of public police actions and dissemination of such. The broadcast of officers’ id.s, especially id recordings not involving non-police action causes some qualms.
The local elementary school downloads and prints the pictures of registered sex offenders who live in the area. The album is kept in the front office.
With enough recordings, it shouldn’t be all that difficult to make and disseminate an album of local LEOs, their family members, where they go to school or where they like to eat or shop.
Should a person’s ability to record the image or actions of anyone in public be restricted because of the possible use of the recording? Can dissemination of such recordings be restricted because of possible use? Are all remedies limited to post-dissemination harm?
The Cook County position in this matter of video recordings by humans needs to be explored more on this blog. We need some footage of the cops leaving their bar after happy hour, the prosecutor’s grass needing to be cut, her trash cans overflowing and unkempt, her hair a mess after the rain storm, the judge leering at the court reporter, the Saint Patricks Day Parade with cops posing as Irish. We need cameras secreted in our Cubs caps.
Malisha, now if only they would do it in er’s and operating rooms. (Oh whoops, they had video of the operation before the one that caued my med. mal and paralyzed face, and proved a major part of the negligence issue. Somehow when the lawyer requested it, it just could not be found.)
I’m totally with you, Mr. Turley, on this one.
Decent, hard working, diligent, non-corrupt cops should be jumping for joy. No longer do they need to feel the terrible pressure that arises when they witness something wrong but can’t open their mouths about it for fear of jeopardizing their jobs or their standing within the BLUE community. Their appropriate conduct cannot be questioned by dishonest or mean-spirited or otherwise criminal citizens, either. This is a big HOORAY and a liberation for them.
(oh unless youre a cop)
Another reason to love the ACLU
So, great! How long is needed to “coerce” you before you cop a misdeamor plea vs 15 years for “dope”, and give them the key to erasing your video evidence on the cloud???? And how many cop hands can you cover with one video and your hands leaned against the car?
Where there is muscle and a bad LEO, there is a way to bend the citizen.
Also, how many contracts are already laid ro fix this fix.?
Who has more money of the two forces?
Ho hum. Wish it were so.
Just tell the cops that “if you haven’t done anything wrong you have nothing to worry about” … like they do when they want to search a person, place, or thing.
google: ustream
live broadcast and free 10 gb storage (can become member and increase storage)
I agree with Raff. The street camera rationale supplies the rationale for citizens to have the same ability to document illegal police behavior. After all we all want to be protected from illegal violent acts. Or is the same situation as in animal farm” some animals are MORE equal than others”.
Great idea. It is the citizens response to street cameras.
Seems reasonable to me especially under the current circumstances…..
We talked about the need for this technology on this blog several years ago. From 2009:
Users need to have the footage completely protected from any chance of deletion by pushing the content to a protected cloud. Carlos Miller recently collaborated on an app called TapIn to do that:
http://www.pixiq.com/article/introducing-tapin-the-new-iphone-app