San Francisco (AFP)
This is the latest advice in vogue on social networks in the United States: Internet users recommend installing a shortcut on your iPhone that lets you alert a friend and start a video recording when the police tell you to stop. on the side of the road.
Once installed, if necessary, the smartphone user only has to say "Siri, I'm getting pulled over" (Siri, I'm being checked by the police ") or to click a button on the standby screen.
The shortcut "interrupts music, decreases brightness and volume, activates + do not disturb + mode, and sends a message to the contact you have chosen to inform them of the situation and your location. It launches your camera above the screen and film what’s going on so you have a recording afterwards, "said developer Robert Petersen on the Reddit platform.
He created this shortcut a year ago, but his popularity at the time comes from heightened distrust of the police, especially among African-American minorities.
Since the death of George Floyd at the end of May, arrested and killed by a white police officer, hundreds of thousands of people have marched against police violence and systemic racism.
Video recordings are regularly used by both sides, during degenerating demonstrations, to prove aggression or self-defense.
It is more complicated during arrests, where the arrested person depends on the cameras that certain police officers carry on them, or passers-by, as in the case of George Floyd.
The standalone shortcut can only be downloaded and installed from Apple's browser, Safari, on an iPhone. It is not available on the smartphone application store.
© 2020 AFP