By David Ponce
Most times police are well intentioned and their interactions with the public will go down smoothly. But every now and then a bad apple pushes his power too far and tramples on your rights; sometimes massively so. In cases of police abuse, it can come down to their word versus yours and if there’s no reliable witness, there may be no way to make things right later on. The Police Tape application from the NJ office of the ACLU has developed an application that could tip the balance in your favour. If you see you’re about to be in a potentially abusive situation just start the application; it will promptly vanish from your screen as if nothing is happening when in fact it’s either recording audio or video, discreetly. But most importantly, should a tech savvy cop confiscate your phone and start looking through it to erase any possible incriminating files, the application simultaneously uploads what you’re recording to the ACLU’s servers, safely out of reach of any police action.
There’s also information on what rights you have, depending on where you are: your car, at home, on the street or while being arrested.
It’s available now on Android with an iOS version potentially due later this summer. It’s free.
[ Police Tape ] VIA [ BoingBoing ]
Thats great until you present the recording as evidence and get locked up for a felony. Secret recordings in most states are a violation of the wiretap statute and ill-advised!
Depends on the state you’re in. Texas its perfectly legal to do so. See Below:
So long as a wire, oral, or electronic communication—including the radio portion of any cordless telephone call—is not recorded for a criminal or tortious purpose, anyone who is a party to the communication, or who has the consent of a party, can lawfully record the communication and disclose its contents. Texas Penal Code § 16.02.
And here:
Under the statute, consent is not required for the taping of a non-electronic communication uttered by a person who does not have a reasonable expectation of privacy in that communication. See definition of “oral communication,†Texas Code Crim. Pro. Art. 18.20.