“Police Tape” A Free Smartphone App that Securely & Discreetly Records Interaction with Police

“Police Tape,” allows users to record, store and share video and audio of police encounters and includes a guide to citizens’ rights. Citizens can hold law enforcement accountable with “Police Tape,” a smartphone application from the ACLU of New Jersey. The app also has a feature that provides legal information about citizens’ rights when interacting with the police. The app is free of charge due to the generosity of app developer OpenWatch and the ACLU-NJ.

Users will be able to discreetly record audio and video due to the fact that the app disappears from the phone’s screen once recording begins. Recordings can be stored on the device as well as sent to the ACLU-NJ for follow-up investigation. The current version only works with Android smartphones, however, a version compatible with Apple devices is pending approval and expected to be released soon.

“This app provides an essential tool for police accountability,” said ACLU-NJ Executive Director Deborah Jacobs. “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. Historically, vivid images of police mistreating citizens have seared our public consciousness and in some cases spurred important changes,” said ACLU-NJ Policy Counsel Alexander Shalom. “Photos and video are critical to ensuring police accountability and police should know that the eyes of the public are on them at all times.”

The judiciary has analyzed the issue of whether recording encounters of police is legal. Thus far, the courts have been favorable to the rights of recorders of public interactions and police encounters. At least one federal appeals court has struck down a state law that had made it illegal for citizens to record on-duty police officers. In May 2012, the Civil Rights Division of the Department of Justice issued a memorandum affirming the constitutional right to record the police in public. Most importantly, a significant ruling in April 2011 occurred in which a ruling recognized the right of citizens to record law enforcement officers after an individual in Boston was wrongfully arrested for filming an interaction with a police officer.

The “Police Tape” app is available for download. A how-to video created by the ACLU-NJ shows Lady Liberty as she goes through each step of the app as she records and uploads her own run-in with police.