Five-O
August 15, 2014 5:35 PM Subscribe
Georgia Teens Develop App to Document Police Abuse - Five-O, allows citizens to enter the details of every interaction with a police officer. It also allows them to rate that officer in terms of courtesy and professionalism and provides the ability to enter a short description of what transpired.
14-year-old Parkview High School Freshman, Caleb Christian was concerned about the number of incidents of police abuse in the news. Still, he knew there were many good police officers in various communities, but had no way of figuring out which communities were highly rated and which were not. So, together with his two older sisters: Parkview High School senior Ima Christian, and Gwinnett School of Math, Science, and Technology sophomore, Asha Christian, they founded a mobile app development company– Pinetart Inc., under which they created a mobile app called Five-O.These Georgia Teens Created a Yelp to Rate the Police
Like everyone else in America, Ima Christian has been nervously watching the news unfold in Ferguson, Missouri. The 16-year-old resident of Stone Mountain, Georgia, says that she and her siblings have been in constant conversation with their parents about the recent deaths of Michael Brown and Eric Garner (who died last month in Staten Island) at the hands of police.Five-O will be available on August 18 for both iOS and Android devices.
"Our parents try to put everything in context for us," Christian says. "They try to tell us to focus on solutions."
So they decided to build their own answer to police abuse. On Monday, Ima Christian (pictured, second from left) and her siblings—principally Caleb, 14, and Asha, 15, with the support of Joshua, 10—are launching a beta version of Five-O, an app that will enable users to rate their interactions with police and view aggregate scores for how law-enforcement agencies fare.
Make sure they allow you to include demographics with each review. That way we can see the difference between black and white interactions with the officer.
posted by Talez at 5:47 PM on August 15, 2014 [14 favorites]
posted by Talez at 5:47 PM on August 15, 2014 [14 favorites]
Someone get these kids some valley VC money.
If you hooked this up to any number of services shockingly good facial recognition setups, and added integration with something like udbappd you'd pretty much have the one stop shop for this sort of thing.
Here's the video, here's the info i could grab, and here's the best guess at who these cops are from previous entered encounters that match the facial recognition.
bam, fuct.
On preview, i agree that there should be age ranges, gender, and race fields. No actual profiles, but just basic info like that.
posted by emptythought at 5:49 PM on August 15, 2014 [5 favorites]
If you hooked this up to any number of services shockingly good facial recognition setups, and added integration with something like udbappd you'd pretty much have the one stop shop for this sort of thing.
Here's the video, here's the info i could grab, and here's the best guess at who these cops are from previous entered encounters that match the facial recognition.
bam, fuct.
On preview, i agree that there should be age ranges, gender, and race fields. No actual profiles, but just basic info like that.
posted by emptythought at 5:49 PM on August 15, 2014 [5 favorites]
Check out the video, the app has all of those fields and more in the "Report an Interaction" form.
posted by invitapriore at 6:09 PM on August 15, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by invitapriore at 6:09 PM on August 15, 2014 [2 favorites]
CATO institute effort to hold police accountable.
posted by rough ashlar at 6:13 PM on August 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by rough ashlar at 6:13 PM on August 15, 2014 [1 favorite]
I thank these children's parents for setting them on the right path to being contributing, thinking, compassionate adults.
posted by 724A at 6:33 PM on August 15, 2014 [10 favorites]
posted by 724A at 6:33 PM on August 15, 2014 [10 favorites]
ratemyoppressors.com
posted by voltairemodern at 6:44 PM on August 15, 2014 [50 favorites]
posted by voltairemodern at 6:44 PM on August 15, 2014 [50 favorites]
Count on this somehow being made illegal.
posted by dry white toast at 6:45 PM on August 15, 2014 [5 favorites]
posted by dry white toast at 6:45 PM on August 15, 2014 [5 favorites]
> Count on this somehow being made illegal.
No, it will be legal just like photographing and taping policing in action is legal. And the legality will be ignored just the same.
posted by insert.witticism.here at 7:12 PM on August 15, 2014 [10 favorites]
No, it will be legal just like photographing and taping policing in action is legal. And the legality will be ignored just the same.
posted by insert.witticism.here at 7:12 PM on August 15, 2014 [10 favorites]
Someone get these kids some valley VC money.
Haha, like valley VC money gives a shit about social justice.
posted by mhoye at 7:29 PM on August 15, 2014 [5 favorites]
Haha, like valley VC money gives a shit about social justice.
posted by mhoye at 7:29 PM on August 15, 2014 [5 favorites]
This is what I've wanted to see since I was their age, poking around on a Commodore: kids using technology to make the world a better place.
posted by bigbigdog at 7:38 PM on August 15, 2014 [5 favorites]
posted by bigbigdog at 7:38 PM on August 15, 2014 [5 favorites]
Everyone should be recording everything every cop does all the time. Film the cops film the cops film the cops.
Film the cops.
posted by BitterOldPunk at 7:43 PM on August 15, 2014 [8 favorites]
Film the cops.
posted by BitterOldPunk at 7:43 PM on August 15, 2014 [8 favorites]
Five-O will be available on August 18 for both iOS and Android devices.
Lord, I hope they were smart enough to not use their real names when they post that.
posted by eriko at 8:04 PM on August 15, 2014 [2 favorites]
Lord, I hope they were smart enough to not use their real names when they post that.
posted by eriko at 8:04 PM on August 15, 2014 [2 favorites]
This actually makes me feel a little better about living here.
posted by JHarris at 9:40 PM on August 15, 2014 [2 favorites]
posted by JHarris at 9:40 PM on August 15, 2014 [2 favorites]
Someone get these kids some valley VC money.
Actually I think you don't want this unless you mean you want some VC to just plain give them a donation or grant.
posted by save alive nothing that breatheth at 11:04 AM on August 16, 2014 [3 favorites]
Actually I think you don't want this unless you mean you want some VC to just plain give them a donation or grant.
posted by save alive nothing that breatheth at 11:04 AM on August 16, 2014 [3 favorites]
I feel like it's fairly risky to record ones interactions with law enforcement in a public place, good or bad.
posted by empath at 12:01 PM on August 16, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by empath at 12:01 PM on August 16, 2014 [1 favorite]
I feel like it's fairly risky to record ones interactions interact with law enforcement in a public place, good or bad.
Less so than many because I am white, but still, I think recording your interactions with cops is the best way to go.
posted by Hactar at 4:53 PM on August 16, 2014 [2 favorites]
Less so than many because I am white, but still, I think recording your interactions with cops is the best way to go.
posted by Hactar at 4:53 PM on August 16, 2014 [2 favorites]
Take back the streets.
posted by Joe in Australia at 10:39 PM on August 16, 2014
posted by Joe in Australia at 10:39 PM on August 16, 2014
I really, really admire the kids doing this. Even if the project doesn't fly, they're clearly thinking right, in my opinion. They'll hit a home run one way or another.
Part of me thinks this is a really good idea.
Another part of me realizes that interactions with law enforcement are often emotionally-charged things where participants - both LEO and civilian - may not be thinking as clearly or as rationally as they should.
Or as honestly.
I could see a civilian so incensed about a traffic citation as to write a review of the officer claiming that he/she was rude, threatening or whatever else simply to grind an axe. How many people have you seen give total meltdown reviews on Yelp of things that weren't the restaurant's fault or what YOU perceive as minor?
This requires a fair amount of honestly and integrity. I truly hope that's how this would come out, but I would fear the alternative.
posted by Thistledown at 5:46 AM on August 17, 2014 [1 favorite]
Part of me thinks this is a really good idea.
Another part of me realizes that interactions with law enforcement are often emotionally-charged things where participants - both LEO and civilian - may not be thinking as clearly or as rationally as they should.
Or as honestly.
I could see a civilian so incensed about a traffic citation as to write a review of the officer claiming that he/she was rude, threatening or whatever else simply to grind an axe. How many people have you seen give total meltdown reviews on Yelp of things that weren't the restaurant's fault or what YOU perceive as minor?
This requires a fair amount of honestly and integrity. I truly hope that's how this would come out, but I would fear the alternative.
posted by Thistledown at 5:46 AM on August 17, 2014 [1 favorite]
This is so cool- I was talking to some people about this exact idea a few months ago, but came to the conclusion that aside from not being able to code it myself, I'd be afraid to do it because cops would fucking hate it.
(Part of my thought was that it's a super-obvious idea, and the fact that nobody had done it before might mean it's a bad idea. That, among other reasons, is probably why I'm not a billionaire.)
I expect police departments to claim that it's putting officers at risk somehow, and I'd further expect that if it takes off they'll try to target the developers and users in various unpleasant ways.
But good on these kids for trying it- they should get VC money, because making this as big as possible as fast as possible is probably the best way to avoid my paranoid expectations.
posted by hap_hazard at 2:19 PM on August 17, 2014 [1 favorite]
(Part of my thought was that it's a super-obvious idea, and the fact that nobody had done it before might mean it's a bad idea. That, among other reasons, is probably why I'm not a billionaire.)
I expect police departments to claim that it's putting officers at risk somehow, and I'd further expect that if it takes off they'll try to target the developers and users in various unpleasant ways.
But good on these kids for trying it- they should get VC money, because making this as big as possible as fast as possible is probably the best way to avoid my paranoid expectations.
posted by hap_hazard at 2:19 PM on August 17, 2014 [1 favorite]
Yelp tha police comin down from the underground ...
This is fantastic and I am very impressed by this family.
posted by gingerest at 11:57 PM on August 17, 2014
This is fantastic and I am very impressed by this family.
posted by gingerest at 11:57 PM on August 17, 2014
Anyone have a link for the iOS version?
Searching via iTunes, all I'm seeing is games.
posted by blueberry at 7:37 AM on August 19, 2014
Searching via iTunes, all I'm seeing is games.
posted by blueberry at 7:37 AM on August 19, 2014
Doesn't look like it's released yet, but you can download the android version from their website: pinetartinc.com
posted by Golden Eternity at 8:00 AM on August 19, 2014
posted by Golden Eternity at 8:00 AM on August 19, 2014
You’re Nine Times More Likely to be Killed by a Police Officer than a Terrorist
posted by jeffburdges at 8:04 AM on September 11, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by jeffburdges at 8:04 AM on September 11, 2014 [1 favorite]
Why Police should be Disarmed – They Kill Way too Many People by Mistake
posted by jeffburdges at 11:04 PM on September 13, 2014 [1 favorite]
posted by jeffburdges at 11:04 PM on September 13, 2014 [1 favorite]
Statistics show that 1 in 4 women in the US is a victim of domestic violence, those numbers jump to 1 in 2 if they are married to a cop. (via)
Ya know 1 in 4 is really shitty odds, but.. oh holy shit, half the police force beat their wives, and should therefore be in jail. wtf?!? What's this talk about good apples again?
posted by jeffburdges at 10:38 AM on September 15, 2014 [2 favorites]
Ya know 1 in 4 is really shitty odds, but.. oh holy shit, half the police force beat their wives, and should therefore be in jail. wtf?!? What's this talk about good apples again?
posted by jeffburdges at 10:38 AM on September 15, 2014 [2 favorites]
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posted by [insert clever name here] at 5:43 PM on August 15, 2014 [3 favorites]