The NYCLU released an app called "Stop and Frisk Watch." 
 
 Believe you are witnessing an unlawful police stop and want to record the moment? There's an app for that, courtesy of the New York Civil Liberties Union. 
 
 The group released a free smartphone application on Wednesday that allows people to record videos of and report police “stop and frisk” activity, a practice widely denounced by civil rights groups as unjustified stops that they say mostly target minorities and almost never results in an arrest. 
 
 The appl was thoroughly criticized by the New York Police Department, which said that the tool might prove useful for criminals. 
 
 The “Stop and Frisk Watch” phone app is meant for bystanders watching a police stop, not those subject to it, the NYCLU said. Now available on Android phones, an iPhone version will launch later in the summer. It comes in English and Spanish. 
 
 “Stop and Frisk Watch is about empowering individuals and community groups to confront abusive, discriminatory policing,” NYCLU Executive Director Donna Lieberman said in a statement. “The NYPD’s own data shows that the overwhelming majority of people subjected to stop-and-frisk are black or Latino, and innocent of any wrongdoing. At a time when the [Mayor Mike] Bloomberg administration vigorously defends the status quo, our app will allow people to go beyond the data to document how each unjustified stop further corrodes trust between communities and law enforcement.” 
 
 The recording and report will be sent to the civil liberties group, which will collect the information. One of the app’s three main functions is called “listen,” in which users can learn when and where people around them are being stopped. This would be useful for community groups monitoring police activity, the NYCLU said in a statement. 
 
 New York City police stopped and questioned people 685,724 times in 2011, a more than 600 percent increase in street stops since 2002 -- Bloomberg’s first year in office -- when there were 97,296 stops, the group said in a statement. Of that, 87 percent were black or Latino, and nine out of every 10 of the people who were stopped were not arrested or ticketed. 
 
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 The “stop and frisk” practice has been the subject of many protests in the city, and one of the focuses of the Occupy Wall Street movement. The NYCLU said it developed the app with Jason Van Anden, a Brooklyn-based visual artist and software developer who also created an Occupy Wall Street app, “I’m Getting Arrested.” 
 
 Deputy Police Commissioner Paul Browne denounced the app, saying criminals would find it “useful” because it would alert them to where police stops were happening. He also raised concerns about privacy issues and the rights of those being filmed, noting the group was de facto creating a “database of videos of individuals stopped by police.” 
 
 “It's one thing when providers learn what pizza or movies you like. It’s another to create a database of stops and arrests by police,” he said in an email statement. “On the plus side, the videos may capture images of suspects in the vicinity of a stop and be helpful to the police in that regard. Presumably, the NYCLU database will the names of the videographers and provide a rich vein of potential witnesses to crimes being investigated by the NYPD and other authorities.” 
 
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 Stop and Frisk Watch App 
 
 “Stop and Frisk Watch” is a free and innovative smart phone application that empowers New Yorkers to monitor police activity and hold the NYPD accountable for unlawful stop-and-frisk encounters and other police misconduct. 
 
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 The app is available in English on both Android and iPhone devices and Spanish in the Android version, thanks to a translation by Make the Road New York. Stop and Frisk Watch allows bystanders to fully document stop-and-frisk encounters and alert community members when a street stop is in progress. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 It has three primary functions: 
 
 RECORD : This allows the user to film an incident with audio by simply pushing a trigger on the phone’s frame. Shaking the phone stops the filming. When filming stops, the user immediately receives a brief survey allowing them to provide details about the incident. The video and survey will go to the NYCLU, which will use the information to shed light on the NYPD’s stop-and-frisk practices and hold the Department accountable for its actions. 
 
 : This allows the user to film an incident with audio by simply pushing a trigger on the phone’s frame. Shaking the phone stops the filming. When filming stops, the user immediately receives a brief survey allowing them to provide details about the incident. The video and survey will go to the NYCLU, which will use the information to shed light on the NYPD’s stop-and-frisk practices and hold the Department accountable for its actions. LISTEN : This function alerts the user when people in their vicinity are being stopped by the police. When other app users in the area trigger Stop and Frisk Watch, the user receives a message reporting where the police stop is happening. This feature is especially useful for community groups who monitor police activity. 
 
 : This function alerts the user when people in their vicinity are being stopped by the police. When other app users in the area trigger Stop and Frisk Watch, the user receives a message reporting where the police stop is happening. This feature is especially useful for community groups who monitor police activity. REPORT: This prompts the survey, allowing users to report a police interaction they saw or experienced, even if they didn’t film it. 
 
 The app includes a “Know Your Rights” section that instructs people about their rights when confronted by police and their right to film police activity in public. Stop and Frisk Watch is intended for use by people witnessing a police encounter, not by individuals who are the subject of a police stop. 
 
 To uninstall be sure to uncheck "Lock Screen on Trigger" under the app’s “My Settings” tab. You will then be able to uninstall by accessing your phone’s application settings. 
 
 The NYCLU developed Stop and Frisk Watch with Jason Van Anden, a Brooklyn-based visual artist and software developer who previously developed the Occupy Wall Street app, “I’m Getting Arrested.”
– A new smartphone app encourages users to monitor and record police stops and then send the data to the New York Civil Liberties Union—the group that launched it. The purpose of the free app, called Stop and Frisk Watch, is to collect evidence of "unlawful stop-and-frisk encounters and other police misconduct." Civil rights groups condemn such stops and say they unfairly target minorities, reports MSNBC. The Justice Department is reviewing the NYPD strategy. The app has three main functions: video recording, reporting the info to the NYCLU, and a "listen" button that allows the user to see where nearby stops are taking place. It's intended for use by bystanders, not someone who has been stopped. The NYPD hates it, saying criminals will be aware of police locations.