An App to Stop Police Brutality

With the recent murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery, the country is now in a state of shock as White people have suddenly realized that the Black community has a problem with bad police officers using excessive force against unarmed citizens.

It seems like a new video is coming out everyday showing Black people being attacked by police officers without provocation. While watching these videos I came up with an idea on how to reduce the number of these incidents. Nothing will completely stop this until all of the bad cops are removed from every police force nationwide.

Even while they are being video recorded, they still don't care about how they treat Black people. But this isn't just limited to Black people, it just happens more frequently to us. It's like it is mandatory that we are treated this way. This has to stop.

While watching these videos, I came up with an idea for an app to monitor these confrontations. This app will connect you directly to a control center that can view your interaction with police officers in real time within seconds. The people manning the control center will have the authority to oversee and interject when things may start to escalate. They will have the authority to police the police.

A lot of times the problem escalates when a civilian knows or may think they know their rights and the police officer then gets agitated and tries to use force to make you comply. The control center will be able to instruct both you and the officer on what to do to keep the problem from escalating.

This app will put you at ease because you now have a legal entity instructing you on how to comply and it will keep the officer from overstepping his authority. It is not intended to make an officer look bad, it is intended to deescalate a potentially volatile encounter.

Here are a few reasons why this works better than a mere phone call or just relying on video footage submitted after the fact. One reason is sometimes a bodycam doesn't show the whole picture. Also, bodycam footage is reviewed by the department and does not always lead to immediate action when the officers are wrong.

Another example is the person recording may not have or be allowed to get the right angle to view the altercation. We can take the George Floyd video as an example. At one point we can see the officers on George, but the person recording moved across the street to get closer and we don't know what the other officers were doing. We only saw the one officer on his neck. The officer who was standing there keeping the people back would not let them get a better view when she tried to get a better position.

Maybe with The Third Eye, George Floyd would not have been in that position or even arrested. There is still no explanation as to why he was taken out of a police cruiser and wound up in that position in the first place. A lot of what we are also seeing are incidents that were recorded years ago and are now coming back up for review.

Yes it is good these cases are being prosecuted, but just think how many could have been prevented with live intervention. We see in some instances police officers talking to someone and then another cop will come up and blindside the citizen without any information being exchanged between the officers.

Will it work in every situation? The answer is no. It would not have saved Breonna Taylor. In fact she was trying to dial 911 when the police broke into her home. It is not going to help citizens who are arrested and then taken to the station and attacked by a gang of police.

Right now some police will allow you to record as long as you keep your distance. With The Third Eye the control center can instruct you to get in a position where they can talk to an officer and make sure protocol is being followed, or as in the case of Rayshard Brooks, talk to the officers to determine if an arrest is even necessary. He only became defensive when the officer tried to put handcuffs on him without informing him what he was being arrested for.

Would it have helped Philando Castile? I believe so. We see from the officer's dashcam that he is calmly talking to him when he approaches his car, then he reaches for his own gun when Philado tells the officer that he has a legal handgun in the car. He then shoots him, and his girlfriend starts recording as she fears she will be next. She could have had The Third Eye activated when the officer approached the car.

One of the new tricks officers are using is to handcuff you or "detain" you while they question you. If you are innocent or have done nothing wrong, this automatically escalates the situation. The control center can help in this situation to determine if this is necessary.

This will also help in situations such as Ahmaud Arbery. If he could have activated The Third Eye when he was first confronted by his killers, he could have had the control center send out real police and instruct him where to wait on them. He may still be alive. The same with Trayvon Martin. When he first noticed George Zimmerman following him, he could have activated The Third Eye and police could have responded to him instead of Zimmerman. He may still be alive.

It will also help with the Karens of the world who just call the police and lie about Black people doing something illegal. We are smart enough to record these rants now, but imagine if we could talk to the control center and there would be no doubt who the instigator is. It could save the police a trip out with a predetermined attitude of guilt. I have included a video below showing how this would work in most situations.

I have been getting nothing but positive feedback about this idea, but most people seem to think it would cost to much to implement such a system. When I was younger, we used to have to call the police and fire departments directly or dial the operator to connect us to them. Now we have 911 where a control center determines whether you need the fire department, police, or an ambulance in an emergency.

In modern times you have to use modern technology. The control center has to operate similar to your home security system. If something triggers an alarm, they can view your home and talk to you directly to determine if there is a threat. The Third Eye will work in the same way, except you are talking to legal authorities that have been trained to deescalate situations and protect both of you. This is where we have a problem.

Who will these people be that have that authority? Will it be lawyers? Will it be high ranking police officers? Will it be internal affairs? Will it be people trained through a government agency? This is what has to be determined. The main thing is it has to be done.

We would also have to determine how the control center will be financed. Will it be through donations which require fund raisers like public tv does? Will it be through a non-profit organization? Will it be though government funding or subsidies? That can also be determined. We can't wait on local and federal governments to just pass police reform laws. These situations need real time monitoring. Let's save lives now.