Mobile democracy: cell phones vs. jail cells.

• Author: Balko, Radley
• Position: Citings - Recording police abuse - Brief article

IN JULY THE National Association for the Advancement of Colored People unveiled a new website encouraging people to use their cell phones to upload photos, videos, and text accounts of police abuse. Dubbed the Rapid Report System, the site will host the material for safekeeping, protecting evidence even if police are able to confiscate or destroy cell phones at the scene.

In recent years, cell phone cameras have captured dozens of incidents of police misbehavior, most notably a point-blank shooting in January of 22-year-old Oscar Grant by an Oakland Bay Area Rapid Transit officer at a subway station. YouTube, LiveLeak, and other video sharing sites teem with photos and videos of physical and verbal abuse by police officers. In May a cell phone video caught an Oklahoma Highway Patrol officer choking an EMT. The officer had pulled over an ambulance that was en route to the hospital with a patient because the driver failed to yield to his squad car.

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