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Crime-Fighting Smartphone App Unveiled To The Public
St. Sen. Adams: App Like Having A Community Watch Group On Your Phone
http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2012/08/12/crime-fighting-smartphone-app-unveiled-to-the-public/
Brooklynian » Forum » Prospect Heights »
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Scanned the article, but don't see the name of the app? Do you know it? Thx.
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The Brooklyn Quality of Life App (BQL) became available for Android users Saturday night. Apple users will be able to access the app in about a month. Despite its name, the free app works throughout New York City.
For better or worse, the change on Nostrand is going to make the change on Franklin look minor. -
Thx.
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Might this whole idea cross into privacy rights? Any thoughts?
Also, shouldn't some civilians be alongside the retired police officers when screening the reports? There may be reports and videos of police abuse that retired officers may squelch.
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Whose privacy? The criminal's?
Even if you are concerned about the privacy of a victim, for example a sexual assault victim, the app doesn't make the video public... It merely facilitates delivery of evidence of a crime to the police, so as to aid in the apprehension of the perp.
Yes, that does admittedly make it possible for pervert cops and former cops to leer at video of a rape in progress.
Given the profusion of video-capable smartphones, that risk already exists. The new app balances that risk against a greater likelihood of criminal apprehension.
As for civilian oversight, yes, I agree that would be a good thing. But nothing prevents anyone who captures video of abusive cops from sending copies of the video directly to the news media.
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Currently, people who are afraid of giving evidence to the police sometimes give it to the staff of politicians they trust. The politicians then keep the source confidential and give the info to the police.
People use Tish James' office for such purposes.....
For better or worse, the change on Nostrand is going to make the change on Franklin look minor. -
Good to know about Tish James' office. Also, Booklaw mentioned rape above, and I wonder what crime scenes come to mind that you would videotape and submit via this app?
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I wish I had a videotape of this -
Do We Want a 'Stop and Frisk' Society
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/anthony-gregory/stop-and-frisk_b_1777095.htmlAnother troubling aspect involves the women stopped and frisked by male officers. Whereas with airport security, officials can only pat down those of the same gender, New York City's police officers face no such restriction. Women have accused police of sexualizing their searches. Twenty-two-year-old Crystal Pope complains that one early evening, police officers, claiming to be in pursuit of a rapist, asked for the IDs of her and other women at a bench near her home in Harlem Heights and proceded to search her. The scene she describes raises some serious concerns.
"They tapped around the waistline of my jeans... They tapped the back pockets of my jeans, around my buttock. It was kind of disrespectful and degrading. It was uncalled-for. It made no sense. How are you going to stop three females when you are supposedly looking for a male rapist?"
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Now that would be good evidence for those women molested by NYPD male officers, right?
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While the widespread use of stop and frisk in NYC has been the subject of much healthy debate, in high crime neighborhoods, specifically drug corners, it has caused many drug dealers to Adapt by keeping their drugs and weapons not on their person, but nearby.
This adaptation, combined with the use of stop and frisk in a less than judicial manner, has driven down the "success" rate of the practice, and means that even when the police are told where such items are being hidden (or stumble upon them) they have a difficult time connecting them to a particular person.
A video tape which showed a person placing the objects in the location (wheel well, trash can, bush, etc) for later use would be a good use of the technology. By convincing the police that solid arrests were possible, it could lead to "neighbor improvement" in cases when less than brilliant individuals operate on the same corner and hide their drugs or weapons in the same place, night after night.
More about "Community Guns": http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/11/nyregion/hidden-communal-guns-are-more-common.html
http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news/local&id=7137692
For better or worse, the change on Nostrand is going to make the change on Franklin look minor.
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