Encountering the police basically can suck. It may be even worse if you’re a particular person of shade. However LAs ABC7 studies that the Los Angeles County Sheriffs are attempting one thing a bit totally different to enhance interactions between the general public and police. A brand new app is being examined that can enable individuals to video name the officer that’s pulling them over.

The sheriff’s division in West Hollywood is utilizing a brand new app from an organization referred to as SafeStop. Whereas particulars on how precisely this all works are a bit mild, the gist of it’s when an officer initiates a visitors cease on a motorist, the driving force will open up the SafeStop app on their telephones and provoke a video name that permits the officer and driver to speak with out ever having to depart their automobiles. Knowledge exhibits that the primary few moments of a visitors cease are vital in how issues go ahead; much more so when the stops involve Black drivers.

In a assertion, SafeStop mentioned that the app provides drivers “the power to take the lead on alerting police to their presence and creating transparency within the course of.” However why is one thing like that the job of the driving force to do? However principally it’s so these encounters with legislation enforcement can go nicely and cooler heads can prevail. LA County Sheriffs West Hollywood Capt. William Moulder referred to as the app “an modern new instrument for our Deputies to make use of in acceptable conditions throughout visitors stops.” And to incentivize drivers to make use of it, SafeStop says that for a restricted time the corporate pays a proportion of a driver’s ticket once they use the app.

Replace: A consultant from SafeStop received again to us with a bit extra info on how the app works.

“The app makes use of location knowledge to make sure that each the officer and driver are related to one another accurately. The placement shouldn’t be actively tracked, it’s a snapshot of the place the driving force was once they click on the decision button.”