The American Civil Liberties Union of New Jersey is unveiling an Android app allowing citizens to secretly record audio and video of police stops, and have the footage sent to the group’s servers for review. “This app provides an essential tool for police accountability,” ACLU-NJ Executive Director Deborah Jacobs said in a statement. “Too often incidents of serious misconduct go unreported because citizens don’t feel that they will be believed. Here, the technology empowers citizens to place a check on police power directly.” The Police Tape app is among a growing number of apps aimed at empowering citizens in their encounters with police activity. The New York chapter of the ACLU released a similar app last month, and others enable protesters to notify family, friends and attorneys if they’ve been arrested. Its development comes two weeks after the death of Rodney King , whose 1991 video-taped beating at the hands of Los Angeles police seemingly ushered in new role of the citizen watchdog. Now two decades later, a wide swath of the public is armed with tiny recording devices — their mobile phones, and the ACLU is seeking to make it as easy as ever to capture the authorities with video or audio — though police officers never seem to be fans of the practice.

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Secretly Monitor Cop Stops With New ACLU App