driving while black team.jpg

Lawyers Melvin Oden-Orr and Mariann Hyland (right and center) teamed up with software developer James Pritchett to create the Driving While Black app.

(Driving While Black)

Mariann Hyland made a vow 10 years ago, after Portland Police fatally shot 21-year-old

during a routine traffic stop.

Hyland, a Portland lawyer who is African American, promised to teach young black people how to survive being pulled over by police. She spent the next decade volunteering on police- and prison-related boards. But nothing she did had the direct, educational component she had promised after James died.

Finally, she says, she has found a way: In December, she and business lawyer Melvin Oden-Orr will release "

," a free app aimed at teaching people of color how to stay safe during traffic stops. As tension between police and people of color continues to escalate after the Mike Brown and Eric Garner decisions, Hyland says this type of education is as vital now as it was after James' death.

Melvin Oden-Orr and Mariann Hyland developed the Driving While Black app. It will be released in December.

"Being a police officer is a tough job," Hyland said. "They deal with the most horrific experiences in society. They're first responders. And traffic stops tend to be where they get hurt the most. So they're on high alert when they pull you over. We want to educate people about how to put them at ease so they don't feel threatened."

Nationwide, a black driver is more than 30 percent more likely to be pulled over than a white driver, according to

. African Americans are more likely to be stopped in Portland, too. Between August and December 2011, they

despite making up 6 percent of the city's population.

Hyland and Orr hope the Driving While Black app will temper those numbers by first teaching young people ways to avoid being pulled over. According to Portland Police's 2011 data, the most recent year for which statistics are available, African Americans were more likely to be pulled over for equipment and license violations than white drivers. They were less likely be pulled over for major traffic violations than white drivers.

The Driving While Black app advises against tinted windows and urges people of color to make sure they use turn signals early. The app includes checklists to remind drivers to keep their license plate tags up-to-date and their headlights in working order.

The app coaches drivers on what to do once they have been pulled over. It includes an alert function that allows users to program three numbers in -- their mother, a friend and a lawyer, for instance. Then, when the driver is stopped by an officer, the user can hit the "alert" button to immediately send a message to those three people.

"People feel so alone in these vulnerable situations," Hyland said.

The app includes a record function so users can tape and log interactions with police. It has video tutorials that show good and bad behavior during traffic stops and forms for submitting commendations or complaints against officers. It will include a how-to-guide for

.

And it includes checklists for ways to keep officers at ease. The creators' research, for instance, shows that police see a car full of empty Red Bull cans as a dangerous signal.

"We want this to be a bridge between law enforcement and the community," Hyland said.

Portland Police Sgt. Pete Simpson said the bureau encourages drivers to stay informed. The bureau publishes its own "Know Your Rights" brochure.

"It's things everybody should exercise, like your keep your hands on the wheel," said Simpson, a bureau spokesman. "I do if i get pulled over. But certainly we recognize that especially within the black community, there is a feel that there needs to be more education in this area. And we're more than OK with it."

Hyland understands the anger and fear many people of color feel toward law enforcement. For years, the lawyer was so furious over Los Angeles' officers' treatment of Rodney King, she couldn't even look at a police officer. Gradually, she relaxed as she met officers through her volunteer work.

"It really helped heal me," said Hyland, who now works at the Oregon Bar Association and worked on the app in her free time. "They dispelled all the stereotypes I had."

She knows many are still angry, though, and that leads to tense interactions with police. That tension can escalate routine traffic stops -- and lead to violence.

"Even if we didn't make a dime, if we saved one person, it would be worth it," Hyland said.

Still, they had concerns: What if their app caused problems? What if a driver reached for his phone to use the app, and an officer mistakenly thought he or she was reaching for a gun?

And they debated whether to include video recording. Other apps, including the

for Androids and the New York City-based

app for iPhone, allow it. Oden-Orr worried Driving While Black users could run into issues in states such as Oregon, where secretly recording police is illegal.

They settled on including a record function that reminds the user to tell officers they are being filmed. And they suggest keeping phones in a nearby hands-free device.

Driving While Black focuses specifically on traffic stops, though some tutorials will be useful during pedestrian stops like the Ferguson interaction between Officer Darren Wilson and Michael Brown. In Portland, African Americans account for 20 percent of police pedestrian stops.

The app will be available for Android on Google Play and for Apple phones on iTunes later this month. The developers already have connected with some high-profile supporters: Multnomah County Commissioner Loretta Smith invited the all-black team to a dinner at her house with Rev. Jesse Jackson last week. Jackson visited Portland and Seattle to encourage tech companies to recruit more African Americans.

"It's a pretty cool project," Smith said. "It's to give folks information on what to do when you're stopped by law enforcement. Being able to do this before you're stopped, it can reinforce what you need to do and how you need to do it. As you can tell from Ferguson, it was clearly a case of folks not knowing how to appropriately respond."

Driving While Black does consolidate resources from dozens of sources, but each case is different, Hyland said. The app teaches mothers how to talk to their sons about police. Eventually, it also will include a directory of lawyers for the user's area, programmed using location-based technology.

-- Casey Parks