10 ms·

‘Hey Siri, I’m getting pulled over’: Records police interaction, sends location

167 points by miles 6y ago

gkoberger 6y ago
This title makes it feel like it's an Apple feature, but really it's just a Shortcut someone put together. It basically just turns down the volume, texts your location to an emergency contact, and opens your camera. It doesn't upload the footage in realtime to a central server as other apps do.
- michaelbuckbee 6y ago
  It does push it to iCloud or Dropbox though.
  - hnarn 6y ago
    Can you clarify this, does iCloud or Dropbox actually receive video in real time as it's being recorded, or does it only start uploading after the recording is done? Because in the latter case, I doubt it will do much good -- unless perhaps sleeping an iPhone during a recording saves what has been recorded so far and uploads it in the background, which I'm also not sure of.
- dluan 6y ago
  Dropbox immediately uploading photos/videos is the only reason I have it on my phone, more or less for this reason.
- acangiano 6y ago
  Any app in particular?
- ninkendo 6y ago
  There’s probably an opportunity here: If there was an app that did streaming video to a server already, the developers could easily add a shortcut to it which started a stream to a server, and you could hook it up to Siri via the Shortcuts app.
  - hnarn 6y ago
    Surely there must be apps that offer this functionality already? I'm not app-savvy enough to come up with any examples but I know many years ago there was a lot of talk about Bambuser.[1] [1]: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/bambuser/id963132997 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/bambuser/id963132997
LeifCarrotson 6y ago
It records it if you have the Siri Shortcuts app installed and download that user script. The article points out the Siri command is only for iPhones, but it could also be a Google Routine or an Alexa skill, or there are standalone apps for all three platforms that do the same thing.
fsniper 6y ago
This is a declaration of how un-civilized and rotten USA is. If a countryfolk needs to create tooling to safeguard themselves from the country's force whose sole purpose is to protect the countryfolk, then that country is dead already.
- kevin_thibedeau 6y ago
  The murder of Philando Castile 4 years ago should have made that obvious.
- kkotak 6y ago
  Many of the evils in the US are rooted in the 2nd amendment and the NRA.
  - beervirus 6y ago
    1. Police are murdering people. 2. Only the police should have guns. Choose one.
    - gopalv 6y ago
      Is that a dichotomy? The "only the police" almost makes it sound like that is what is being discussed around gun control laws. The cops in the US are definitely more jumpy than I'm comfortable with - their natural reaction to a car door closing and someone (or is it just me, I look like a rake with an afro) stepping towards them is to touch their gun, because they treat every person as possibly armed & dangerous. And it's not like I was in a high crime area either, all I needed was to know my way to SJC having missed 85.
    - dragontamer 6y ago
      Would the Police have shot Brianna Taylor if her boyfriend wasn't shooting at the cops? Sure, no-knock warrants were a problem. But Kenneth Walker's gun didn't make the situation any better. I'm not "victim blaming" Kenneth Walker or Brianna Taylor here. Its absolutely the cops fault for messing up the no-knock warrant. But in a country with 2nd amendment, cops have the difficult job of entering homes vs armed neutral parties. In the UK, cops can go in with nothing but a baton and be fine, because the UK citizenry don't have as many guns as US citizens do. -------- There's a huge and fundamental difference between UK cops and US cops if only because of the 2nd Amendment issue. Each encounter with the citizenry, even if they are neutral, can end up deadly due to our huge proliferation of guns. That stress in of itself could be making our cops more trigger happy, because US Cops enter life-or-death situations in higher frequency than other countries.
bb123 6y ago
This is cool - I think smartphones are are best defence against violent police oversteps. Now everyone has a camera with them and we are seeing the results. Democratisation of surveillance.
- doublerabbit 6y ago
  It's a neat idea until a law is passed forcing you to hand over a "IoT device" to the sheriff in charge.
  - hnarn 6y ago
    Doesn't matter if your device is designed in such a way that it can stream content in a clandestine way, so that it's hard to verify whether it is or not, while sleeping. Of course you can always bypass things like this by starting the whole interaction by grabbing the phone and placing it somewhere else, but that would imply intention which may be even more damaging in a future court case if it could be proven from the phone that it was removed (which you can if it was already recording and streaming) -- and I'd like to think that most people can agree across party lines that police shootings do happen in the "heat of the moment" rather than as planned out homicides. It also sure wouldn't hurt with mandatory police cameras, it would help police as well as long as they behave, and auditing an official like that shouldn't be controversial.
- aaronbrethorst 6y ago
  I think voting for the right people is probably more effective.
  - ekianjo 6y ago
    Only if you believe change comes top-down.
    - dredmorbius 6y ago
      This is a candle best burnt at both ends.
livecodestream 6y ago
It is a very strange world where we need technology to protect us from those who protect us.
bananamerica 6y ago
I am black. If I was in the United States I’d have a dashcam and would wear a bodycam if possible.
- chrisjs96 6y ago
  The data doesn't seem to back up your claim. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_use_of_deadly_force_in_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_use_of_deadly_force_in_...
  - sidlls 6y ago
    Deadly force isn't the only way police commit violence against impoverished Americans, or against Americans who aren't white (regardless of economic class). You don't have to be murdered by the police for your life to be effectively ended when they make up BS about assaulting an officer, resisting arrest, etc.
    - briandear 6y ago
      How often is resisting arrest made up? Just curious about the actual data on that.
    - chrisjs96 6y ago
      Completely agree. Although the data doesn't show african american's are killed at a higher rate(in fact it shows the opposite) it does show that they are discriminated against at a higher rate. Pulled over more, etc.
      - thebean11 6y ago
        If I understood the data correctly, African Americans are pulled over more, then after being pulled over they are killed at the same rate as other groups. That still implies they are killed at a higher rate. The population we're concerned about isn't "people who have already been pulled over".
      - 6y ago
Gaelan 6y ago
@mods can we get this headline changed? as other comments have pointed out, it's pretty misleading.
stevespang 6y ago
Take it to the next level ! (I proposed this to a famous DWI lawyer who never did anything with it). Like technical support on call, you have retired or maybe incapacitated lawyers on video link on call. As you get stopped, you activate your laptop or large cellphone so lawyers face appears outward on screen. Laptop / cellphone is strapped to the middle of your chest. Lawyer puts cop on notice through video link he represents you and he will be the one answering or refusing any and all questions. He also puts cop on notice that ALL the proceeding will be considered EVIDENCE and any attempt to disrupt the process will be considered destruction of evidence / and attempts to destroy or circumvent the gathering of evidence are a crime which he will vigorously file actions with appropriate charges.
downerending 6y ago
I think this is an outstanding idea. But if it's to be credible, the recordings need to be unmodifiable/undeleteable by the user, and immediately available to law enforcement. Heads I win, tails you lose is not credible. It's just riot bait.
- thekevan 6y ago
  >the recordings need to be unmodifiable/undeleteable by the user and immediately available to law enforcement. That would be a 5th Amendment violation, and possibly a privacy matter.
  - downerending 6y ago
    That's probably true, from a legal perspective. As a practical matter, though, being able to pick and choose only the most inflammatory and out-of-context audio/video pretty much ruins this as a real source of truth.
- sjogress 6y ago
  I thought the police were largely required to wear body cams plus have dash cams in the US. If that is true then there is no need to share the footage, since law enforcement should already be in possession of recordings of an incident.
  - downerending 6y ago
    I was referring to personal recordings rather than those made by police bodycams. Police body cams are somewhat widespread. But many on the left here, including BLM apparently, are against them. For example: https://fox17.com/news/local/black-lives-matter-nashville-releases-statement-on-deployment-of-mnpd-body-cameras https://fox17.com/news/local/black-lives-matter-nashville-re...

167 points by miles 6y ago

This title makes it feel like it's an Apple feature, but really it's just a Shortcut someone put together. It basically just turns down the volume, texts your location to an emergency contact, and opens your camera. It doesn't upload the footage in realtime to a central server as other apps do.

michaelbuckbee 6y ago
It does push it to iCloud or Dropbox though.
- hnarn 6y ago
  Can you clarify this, does iCloud or Dropbox actually receive video in real time as it's being recorded, or does it only start uploading after the recording is done? Because in the latter case, I doubt it will do much good -- unless perhaps sleeping an iPhone during a recording saves what has been recorded so far and uploads it in the background, which I'm also not sure of.
dluan 6y ago
Dropbox immediately uploading photos/videos is the only reason I have it on my phone, more or less for this reason.
acangiano 6y ago
Any app in particular?
ninkendo 6y ago
There’s probably an opportunity here: If there was an app that did streaming video to a server already, the developers could easily add a shortcut to it which started a stream to a server, and you could hook it up to Siri via the Shortcuts app.
- hnarn 6y ago
  Surely there must be apps that offer this functionality already? I'm not app-savvy enough to come up with any examples but I know many years ago there was a lot of talk about Bambuser.[1] [1]: https://apps.apple.com/us/app/bambuser/id963132997 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/bambuser/id963132997

LeifCarrotson 6y ago

It records it if you have the Siri Shortcuts app installed and download that user script. The article points out the Siri command is only for iPhones, but it could also be a Google Routine or an Alexa skill, or there are standalone apps for all three platforms that do the same thing.

fsniper 6y ago

This is a declaration of how un-civilized and rotten USA is. If a countryfolk needs to create tooling to safeguard themselves from the country's force whose sole purpose is to protect the countryfolk, then that country is dead already.

kevin_thibedeau 6y ago
The murder of Philando Castile 4 years ago should have made that obvious.
kkotak 6y ago
Many of the evils in the US are rooted in the 2nd amendment and the NRA.
- beervirus 6y ago
  1. Police are murdering people. 2. Only the police should have guns. Choose one.
  - gopalv 6y ago
    Is that a dichotomy? The "only the police" almost makes it sound like that is what is being discussed around gun control laws. The cops in the US are definitely more jumpy than I'm comfortable with - their natural reaction to a car door closing and someone (or is it just me, I look like a rake with an afro) stepping towards them is to touch their gun, because they treat every person as possibly armed & dangerous. And it's not like I was in a high crime area either, all I needed was to know my way to SJC having missed 85.
  - dragontamer 6y ago
    Would the Police have shot Brianna Taylor if her boyfriend wasn't shooting at the cops? Sure, no-knock warrants were a problem. But Kenneth Walker's gun didn't make the situation any better. I'm not "victim blaming" Kenneth Walker or Brianna Taylor here. Its absolutely the cops fault for messing up the no-knock warrant. But in a country with 2nd amendment, cops have the difficult job of entering homes vs armed neutral parties. In the UK, cops can go in with nothing but a baton and be fine, because the UK citizenry don't have as many guns as US citizens do. -------- There's a huge and fundamental difference between UK cops and US cops if only because of the 2nd Amendment issue. Each encounter with the citizenry, even if they are neutral, can end up deadly due to our huge proliferation of guns. That stress in of itself could be making our cops more trigger happy, because US Cops enter life-or-death situations in higher frequency than other countries.

bb123 6y ago

This is cool - I think smartphones are are best defence against violent police oversteps. Now everyone has a camera with them and we are seeing the results. Democratisation of surveillance.

doublerabbit 6y ago
It's a neat idea until a law is passed forcing you to hand over a "IoT device" to the sheriff in charge.
- hnarn 6y ago
  Doesn't matter if your device is designed in such a way that it can stream content in a clandestine way, so that it's hard to verify whether it is or not, while sleeping. Of course you can always bypass things like this by starting the whole interaction by grabbing the phone and placing it somewhere else, but that would imply intention which may be even more damaging in a future court case if it could be proven from the phone that it was removed (which you can if it was already recording and streaming) -- and I'd like to think that most people can agree across party lines that police shootings do happen in the "heat of the moment" rather than as planned out homicides. It also sure wouldn't hurt with mandatory police cameras, it would help police as well as long as they behave, and auditing an official like that shouldn't be controversial.
aaronbrethorst 6y ago
I think voting for the right people is probably more effective.
- ekianjo 6y ago
  Only if you believe change comes top-down.
  - dredmorbius 6y ago
    This is a candle best burnt at both ends.

livecodestream 6y ago

It is a very strange world where we need technology to protect us from those who protect us.

bananamerica 6y ago

I am black. If I was in the United States I’d have a dashcam and would wear a bodycam if possible.

chrisjs96 6y ago
The data doesn't seem to back up your claim. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_use_of_deadly_force_in_the_United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_use_of_deadly_force_in_...
- sidlls 6y ago
  Deadly force isn't the only way police commit violence against impoverished Americans, or against Americans who aren't white (regardless of economic class). You don't have to be murdered by the police for your life to be effectively ended when they make up BS about assaulting an officer, resisting arrest, etc.
  - briandear 6y ago
    How often is resisting arrest made up? Just curious about the actual data on that.
  - chrisjs96 6y ago
    Completely agree. Although the data doesn't show african american's are killed at a higher rate(in fact it shows the opposite) it does show that they are discriminated against at a higher rate. Pulled over more, etc.
    - thebean11 6y ago
      If I understood the data correctly, African Americans are pulled over more, then after being pulled over they are killed at the same rate as other groups. That still implies they are killed at a higher rate. The population we're concerned about isn't "people who have already been pulled over".
    - 6y ago

Gaelan 6y ago

@mods can we get this headline changed? as other comments have pointed out, it's pretty misleading.

stevespang 6y ago

Take it to the next level ! (I proposed this to a famous DWI lawyer who never did anything with it). Like technical support on call, you have retired or maybe incapacitated lawyers on video link on call. As you get stopped, you activate your laptop or large cellphone so lawyers face appears outward on screen. Laptop / cellphone is strapped to the middle of your chest. Lawyer puts cop on notice through video link he represents you and he will be the one answering or refusing any and all questions. He also puts cop on notice that ALL the proceeding will be considered EVIDENCE and any attempt to disrupt the process will be considered destruction of evidence / and attempts to destroy or circumvent the gathering of evidence are a crime which he will vigorously file actions with appropriate charges.

downerending 6y ago

I think this is an outstanding idea. But if it's to be credible, the recordings need to be unmodifiable/undeleteable by the user, and immediately available to law enforcement. Heads I win, tails you lose is not credible. It's just riot bait.

thekevan 6y ago
>the recordings need to be unmodifiable/undeleteable by the user and immediately available to law enforcement. That would be a 5th Amendment violation, and possibly a privacy matter.
- downerending 6y ago
  That's probably true, from a legal perspective. As a practical matter, though, being able to pick and choose only the most inflammatory and out-of-context audio/video pretty much ruins this as a real source of truth.
sjogress 6y ago
I thought the police were largely required to wear body cams plus have dash cams in the US. If that is true then there is no need to share the footage, since law enforcement should already be in possession of recordings of an incident.
- downerending 6y ago
  I was referring to personal recordings rather than those made by police bodycams. Police body cams are somewhat widespread. But many on the left here, including BLM apparently, are against them. For example: https://fox17.com/news/local/black-lives-matter-nashville-releases-statement-on-deployment-of-mnpd-body-cameras https://fox17.com/news/local/black-lives-matter-nashville-re...