Mich. joins other states with ACLU app to record police

Daniel Bethencourt | Detroit Free Press

DETROIT — A mobile app that allows residents to film police encounters on their phone, and send them to the ACLU moments after the recording is over is becoming available in more states.

The ACLU of Michigan is the latest state chapter to roll out an app called "Mobile Justice." It joins ACLU chapters in California, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, North Carolina and Oregon with Mobile Justice apps. ACLU of New Jersey had an app that they discontinued because of technical issues. It is exploring ways to fix and re-release the app, said Ari Rosmarin, an ACLU of NJ policy expert.

The mobile video-recording apps are becoming more popular as shared bystander-recorded videos put thousands of eyes at the scene of the arrest of Freddie Gray in Baltimore, the deaths of Walter Scott in South Carolina and Eric Garner in New York — all involving police — unleashing public outrage and concern about officers' conduct.

The Mobile Justice MI app, released Wednesday, uploads a video immediately and automatically after a user finishes recording — and a team will later review the video and pursue action if a complaint has merit, said Darrell Dawsey, a spokesman for ACLU of Michigan.

"The primary purpose of the app is to empower people," said Dawsey. "We think that it's important because in this day and age, in a time when we're seeing so many lives, especially black and brown lives, being taken ... we think that it's important to be able to document what's going on."

The app also comes with an optional "witness" feature that alerts other users to a video being recorded and that phone's location. The feature is designed in case there is a developing situation and several people have gathered to record in one area.

The app also allows for a way to file incident reports and send them directly to the ACLU state chapter. The app is available for Apple and Android devices.

In a news release, Dawsey noted the app is needed in the wake of several controversial police encounters in Michigan, including the shooting of Terrance Kellom in Detroit at the hands of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent, and the beating of Floyd Dent in Inkster, Mich.

The app's developer, Quadrant 2, modeled the app on the New York Civil Liberties Union's Stop & Frisk Watch app, which was created to allow bystanders to document instances of stop-and-frisk.

Dawsey noted that the app's release isn't meant to suggest that all police are bad.

"But we understand that there's a problem, and this is a tool towards helping people to address it," Dawsey said. "We do think it's a step in the right direction."

Lt. John Michalke with the Macomb County Sheriff's Office was largely supportive of citizens videotaping the police, though he added he was concerned about privacy of the citizens involved in police encounters.

"(For) officers in the process of doing their job legally and justifiably, we don't fear people videotaping," said Michalke.

And on the subject of videotaping in general, Michalke added, "I think departments are in concurrence that it's a good thing ... to help protect both police and the citizenry at large."

The ACLU advises that while dealing with police, users of the app should make clear that they are reaching for their phones, accessing the app, and if an officer tries to stop them they should not resist.

Contributing: Steph Solis, Asbury Park (N.J.) Press.