A 17-year-old high school student has developed an app that logs your interaction with the police when you are stopped and shares it instantly on Instagram and Facebook.
In 2018, Apple launched a series of shortcuts for its digital assistant, Siri, one of which allows users to record user interactions with the police and then send a text message to a specific contact when it is pulled along with the snaps.
The Apple app, dubbed Police, saw a slight rise in use when widespread protests erupted in the United States against police brutality, law enforcement's abuse of power, and systematic racism in the wake of the police murder of George Floyd, an African-born Minneapolis resident. Law enforcement accountability became the focus of the national debate, leading to the emergence of technology.
These events prompted a high school student in New Jersey to create an app that records your interactions with the police more easily than the Apple app when you are stopped, and can share the footage instantly on social media platforms, including Instagram and Facebook.
Aditya Agrawal, a student at Livingston High School, told Business Insider that he has been working on the app, called PulledOver, for some time. But he has focused more on developing it over the past few months in light of recent events surrounding the law enforcement's treatment of African Americans.
He also states that he had a personal drive to see the app pay off, as he said that a friend of his African descent was recently detained apparently for no reason.
"You see it in the news all the time, but when it happens to one of your close friends, and he tells you how he felt when it happened to him, you feel something else," Agrawal added.
How it works?
You can download Boldover from the Google Play Store and you do not need to log in or create an account to use the app. Just add an emergency contact, and that's it.
And if you are stopped, you can launch the app, which will take you to your phone's original camera app. Press Sign Up, then when done, you will be automatically returned to the Bold Over app and given an option to notify your emergency contact or share it on social media.
You can also share the footage with others who are using the Boldover app, a feature Agrawal said he hasn't tested yet "It's like a community where you can share videos, and you can see how others are being treated."
The young inventor added that another purpose of the application is to raise the level of efficiency of many good police officers.