I don’t know about you, but whenever I get pulled over by the 5-0, the first thing I do is reach for my cell phone, and open up my voice recording app. That, or I have my passenger record everything on video using their cellphone. Call me paranoid, or just plain overly cautious — I like to keep my bases covered should I end up on the hood of a cop car with a tazer up my you-know-what.

Imagine my surprise when I discovered a brand new app by the American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey called “Police Tape” that was just uploaded to the Play Store. Using the app, an Android user can easily — and most importantly, discreetly — record police interactions using either video or audio recording. Once an option has been selected, the app will seemingly close, but actually remain open in the background, recording the entire, hopefully, peaceful interaction. Should things head south and you find your phone confiscated by the police, you wont have to worry about a crooked cop deleting the evidence. The app can back up the video, uploading it to the ACLU’s servers where it can be further analyzed for civil liberty violations at the user’s discretion.

What’s more is the app provides all kinds of useful legal information on your citizen’s rights when interacting with the police. I can’t tell you how many episodes of Cops I’ve seen where someone voluntarily agreed to a search of their car — without probable cause — only to then end up in the slammer. Now, I have much respect for our men in blue. Really, it’s a tough job, no denying that. But to say there aren’t a few overzealous cops with chips on their shoulders would be naive. Now you can protect yourself — with the power of Android.

[Google Play Store]