A new mobile app, launched last week by the ACLU of Missouri, is designed to address the impunity with which law enforcement targets and treats communities of color.

A new mobile app, launched last week by the ACLU of Missouri, is designed to address the impunity with which law enforcement targets and treats communities of color.

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National attention has been given to the impunity with which law enforcement targets and treats communities of color following the killing of teenager Michael Brown at the hands of a Ferguson, Missouri, police officer three months ago, and the protests that followed.

A new mobile app, launched last week by the American Civil Liberties Union of Missouri, is designed to address those actions by police.

The app, called Mobile Justice, gives users a way to record police behavior and archive it in an ACLU database. A function called “Witness” allows people to alert other Mobile Justice app users when they’re stopped by the police, so that the person can travel to the location and film the interaction.

The video files, though they can be recorded anonymously, will be sent automatically to the ACLU—a function meant to prevent police officers from deleting the material after they realize they’re being recorded.

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“Today the combination of an excess of deadly force and near-total lack of accountability is more dangerous than ever,” Frank Serpico, the center of the notorious New York Police Department corruption scandal of the late 1960s, wrote in a Politico Magazine article this October. “Most cops today can pull out their weapons and fire without fear that anything will happen to them, even if they shoot someone wrongfully.”

A fourth function, Know Your Rights, gives people an overview of the rights protecting them when they’re stopped by police. The app is currently only available for download on Android phones, though the ACLU says an iPhone version will soon be available.

“Since Michael Brown was fatally shot in August, we’ve seen a dramatic increase in the number of complaints from people who are routinely stopped, searched, humiliated and bullied into compliance by law enforcement officers,” explained Jeffrey Mittman, executive director of the ACLU of Missouri, in a press release. “This app will empower Missourians who have traditionally felt powerless, regardless of whether they live in Ferguson, Springfield, Cape Girardeau, or in rural Missouri.”

Versions of the app were also rolled out by the ACLU affiliates in Oregon, Nebraska, and Mississippi.

ACLU officials say the organization would archive the video footage and use the footage only when necessary. “We would plan to share the videos in instances where civil liberties could be furthered, for example with lawmakers or news organizations, but we will respect the privacy of those who have taken the videos,” Sarah Armstrong, outreach coordinator of the ACLU-Oregon, told the Oregonian.

The Mobile Justice app is similar to the New York Civil Liberty Union’s Stop and Frisk Watch app, which was intended for bystanders of New York police’s controversial stop-and-frisk encounters. As of February 2013, 20,000 New Yorkers had downloaded the Android version alone.

The Mobile Justice app, in less than a week, has been downloaded 1,000 times, Mittman told CBS St. Louis.

The death of Michael Brown incited calls for increased police accountability. One idea, that all police should wear cameras on their bodies during their shifts, gained significant traction as a method both to deter cops from acting hastily and with violence, and to shine light on the details of encounters like the one Michael Brown had on the street.

The Ferguson police department, like many others, has a stash of body-worn cameras, according to Salon. The cameras have never been issued, though the City of Ferguson announced in late August that it would look into their use. Months later, though, there’s still no indication on whether the department will deploy the cameras.