There are apps to rate everything, from food, to where people live, and now there's one to rate your friendly neighborhood police officers. And it was created by three teenage siblings.
As you probably guessed, the new app was birthed from Michael Brown's death in Ferguson and the unrest that followed. The high schoolers from Decatur, Georgia, made the app, called "Five-O," to give citizens a way to rate and comment on police officers and their departments. "We’ve been hearing about the negative instances in the news, for instance most recently the Michael Brown case, and we always talk about these issues with our parents," 16-year-old Ima Christian told Business Insider. "They always try to reinforce that we should focus on solutions. It's important to talk about the issues, but they try to make us focus on finding solutions. That made us think why don't we create an app to help us solve this problem."
1.
There are apps to rate everything, from food, to where people live, and now there's one to rate your friendly neighborhood police officers. And it was created by three teenage siblings.
As you probably guessed, the new app was birthed from Michael Brown's death in Ferguson and the unrest that followed. The high schoolers from Decatur, Georgia, made the app, called "Five-O," to give citizens a way to rate and comment on police officers and their departments. "We’ve been hearing about the negative instances in the news, for instance most recently the Michael Brown case, and we always talk about these issues with our parents," 16-year-old Ima Christian told Business Insider. "They always try to reinforce that we should focus on solutions. It's important to talk about the issues, but they try to make us focus on finding solutions. That made us think why don't we create an app to help us solve this problem."
2.
Not only that, but the app aims to be educational. It comes with a "Know Your Rights" section coupled with information on the American Civil Liberties Union. Also, if an officer did something good, the teens want you to report that with the app. "If someone has a positive interaction with the police… for example, an officer saved your cat, or was very courteous and professional, we want people to be able to document that too," Imasaid in an interview with Buzzfeed.
And if the app does pick up steam, it may have an affect. Isn't accountability usually what keeps people—officers and politicians, alike—in check? And instead of searching YouTube for footage of officer brutality, we may have links to police reports and names to go along with the nameless people in these videos. It brings context to the situation. If it's not Five-O, it may be another app somewhere down the line. But it seems as if apps, sadly, may be one of our best ways to protect ourselves from those who are supposed to be protecting us. If they don't arrest us for filming.
Download the app for Android here.