
Mobile Justice – ACLU's app for recording police encounters - rgbrgb
https://www.mobilejusticeca.org/
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kstenerud
> 10\. How long will the ACLU keep information we receive through Mobile
> Justice CA?

> The ACLU may delete the information you send.

What's with the non-answers? This is their FAQ. If you're not going to answer
a question you published, why publish it in the first place?

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parennoob
I agree that this is a non-answer for most people, but my response was to read
it RFC style, -- "The ACLU MAY delete the information you send" (i.e. implies
that they will keep it for as long as they want, and at the current low cost
of storage, probably forever).

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pzxc
In theory, I love it.

In practice, what's to stop the officer from confiscating and/or
damaging/destroying your phone, before it has stopped recording and thus
before it has sent anything at all to the ACLU? Worse, their faq seems to
indicate that after stopping recording there is a survey that you either have
to fill out or cancel before the video is transmitted.

The technology exists to stream the video, as it's recording, in real-time to
the ACLU (I think). What is the ACLU thinking by ignoring this obvious flaw?

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irq-1
Not uploading immediately and having a form to fill out is almost
unbelievable; in what situations do they think this will be used?

If storage and bandwidth are the issues, would sending ONLY secure hashes
help? It'd be fast and cheap. It'd prove that a video was taken, and stop any
tampering. On the same idea, the app could send low-res photos once per
second, depending on bandwidth.

Now that I think of it, a P2P system would really be ideal: videos jump to
other nearby devices running the app. They could be deleted after the person
uploads, or a set period of time.

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foolinaround
these are awesome, but I see them more as band-aids, rather than attacking the
real problem.

Defining the problem will vary depending on our individual political and
philosophical bent, but in general, we can start discussing broadly when they
should be encounters in the first place, the factors that lead to them, and
reduction of such encounters.

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christianbryant
Agreed. Especially considering that the majority of law enforcement are there
to do the right thing for the right reason, I believe that we need to be
careful to not send the impression that we should assume there is an assumed
potential for wrong-doing in every person with a uniform. Just as important is
an avenue for sending videos to relevant organizations of criminal executing
criminal acts.

The economic divide is the first place to start in terms of fixing this issue
in the long-term; raise the dignity of life of every person in this country
and I believe the road to healing can begin.

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jellicle
> Especially considering that the majority of law enforcement are there to do
> the right thing for the right reason

Let us suppose three categories of police officers:

a) bad cops

b) cops who generally act good themselves but who will lie and cover for bad
cops

c) good cops who will arrest bad cops when they see them doing bad, and
testify against them, and otherwise act against them, despite peer pressure
not to do so

When people say "most cops are good", they are saying that group a) is small,
which for the purposes of argument I will agree with. But the fact is, there
are almost no cops in group c), and whenever one is discovered, they are
pushed out of the police force as quickly as possible. And I consider group a)
and group b) to both be "bad cops". There are lots of cops in group b), who
consider themselves good, but who should be considered to be part of the
problem.

> assumed potential for wrong-doing in every person with a uniform

Why would a uniform eliminate one's potential for wrong-doing?

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christianbryant
I don't mean to say a uniform eliminates a person's capacity for wrong-doing.
I mean to say that for a system to work, we ought not assume wrong-doing
automatically when we see the uniform, despite the news. Understand, swap
"uniform" with the skin color or nationality of your choice and the same
should be true.

As hacktivists and influencers or social change, we should have other means in
place to make sure justice is done, and be careful not to participate in
reverse racism or painting an institution initially placed for good as the
enemy.

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getpost
The license prohibition on reverse engineering rubs me the wrong way, not that
I'd bother to do that. This app should be open source, especially if it is
used to gather evidence for use in court.

