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Georgia Teens Develop App to Document Police Abuse
- brianbreslin 12y agoHow come there is not a single link to the actual app in the article? Here is a link to their app on their website: http://pinetartinc.com/?p=44 http://pinetartinc.com/?p=44
- Zikes 12y agoThis is what I hate most about online journalism. Even tech-centric web sites will do it intentionally. Just the other day there was a TechCrunch article about some .io company getting bought out and they made it a link, but instead it takes you to the TC page about that company. I'm pretty sure people working at these companies are just so certain that any link leading people away from their web site will cost them money. As if people will just wander onto their site, and as long as they can't find the exit they'll be stuck there forever.
- jonathanjaeger 12y ago@Zikes: I HATE this! I've complained on TC about them not linking to Kickstarter projects and instead linking to other stories about Kickstarter on TechCrunch. I feel like they've gotten better at linking to Kickstarter/Indiegogo for projects lately but they still are guilty of this tactic consistently.
- tlrobinson 12y ago> As if people will just wander onto their site, and as long as they can't find the exit they'll be stuck there forever. The digital equivalent of casinos' lack of windows.
- alttab 12y agoThat and losing money doesn't look entertaining through a window
- Steko 12y agoNot linking to a company described in a news article can be annoying but it's not always some casino mentality code they have against outlinking to maximize internal pageviews -- in many cases it's also journalism trying to hold onto some standards of not just being a shill for the interview subject.
- Zikes 12y agoOn Wikipedia they call it citing sources. Journalism would certainly do very well to practice that.
- davidgerard 12y agoThe BBC somehow survives now that it's actually linking to papers referenced, entities discussed in the article, etc.
- lclarkmichalek 12y agoWell being state funded probably helps in that regard
- davidgerard 12y agoI'd think that would work against the claim being asserted - that external links affect neutrality - given how closely people watch the BBC for any possible bias and berate it for assumed bias (with or without cause).
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- TeMPOraL 12y agoNot linking to a company described requires a very conscious effort. It's obvious that when you want to tell people "hey, look at X", you want to point people towards X somehow. If you don't do this, then it means you have some ulterior motive for not doing that.
- isaacdl 12y agoTheir website is a little basic, but man, when I was 14, my websites used rainbow gradient backgrounds and were written in Microsoft Word. I love seeing this!
- AndrewSB 12y ago"A little basic"? It's straight up a website template. They didn't have to actually make the website, they just added their content. Of course it will look better than something made before popular web publishing tools and templates, they didn't have to write their HTML from (close to) scratch
- jsm386 12y agoBecause the article clearly states that the app is not available yet? From the article: Five-O is currently in Alpha testing and will roll out to the public on August 18th, 2014, available to both Apple and Android. That link you posted is to some screenshots. The closet thing you could link to, in terms of 'how come there is not a single link to the actual app' would be this Google+ 'Community' (don't use G+ unless absolutely necessary so not sure what a G+ community even is) where you can join beta testing: https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/118152542845297996647?cfem=1 https://plus.google.com/u/0/communities/11815254284529799664...
- icantthinkofone 12y agoIt's the equivalent of a spam site. Don't bother. Think about it. A 14-year old made the app (purportedly). Not that it's impossible but you can't find it. Think about it.
- rickyc091 12y ago"Hey Everyone, our 1st mobile Five-O will be published on Monday August 18th, 2014. Get Ready to download!"
- Renaud 12y agoThe execution could need some polish and the UI isn't doesn't seem very friendly (lots of fields to fill in) but such an app fills a real need. This certainly doesn't replace official complaints but having independent data collected on Police interactions can probably increase political pressure to tackle abuses.
- kordless 12y agoPlease connect this to a blockchain.
- kazagistar 12y agoWhy the hell is it a smartphone exclusive app? Isn't the target audience largely underprivileged populations who might not have access to a smartphone? Why do people want everything to be an app, when a website would do the job better?
- froglet 12y agoThese kids that made this grew up with apps, not websites. Apps are their first choice.
- silentbicycle 12y agoBut, isn't accessibility excruciatingly important here? This post (http://modelviewculture.com/pieces/it-s-not-you-it-s-the-system http://modelviewculture.com/pieces/it-s-not-you-it-s-the-sys...) mentions many ways well-intentioned projects can miss the mark, because of these kinds of issues.
- unepipe 12y agoActually, an app is more likely to be on a user's phone for this kind of use... Although you can bookmark a website to your homescreen, most users don't know how to do that and even less actually do that. A mobile app is more likely to be on hand and easy to open in case of a run-in. (Although it's not likely someone would remember to do so if something were happening)
- kalagan 12y agoYou can make a website and then an app which is just a wrapper around the website.
- Lunatic666 12y agoIf you want to target lower income people, then I think smartphones are the better choice. They can afford a cheap Android smartphone rather than a small laptop. Smartphones provide the same services cheaper and they're handy to use
- n72 12y agoVery similar to NYCLU's stop and frisk app: http://www.nyclu.org/app http://www.nyclu.org/app
- stasy 12y agoI just made an app too, but probably not as important...
- lazylizard 12y agoCan they do it for Symbian s40? Record n send by sms?
- bsder 12y agoMore power to them, but it's not like we need more documentation of police abuse. We need some way to force a consequence with said documentation. The police in Missouri simply don't care because the penalties are so small that they can be written off.
- bjelkeman-again 12y agoBut with more data, publicly visible, it is easier to put pressure on politicians and get things changed. There is no other way I know of.
- vidarh 12y agoFrankly, I think what it'll take is more riots.
- deleted 12y ago[deleted]
- higherpurpose 12y agoCompletely disagree. More data is needed about police abuse. If every single person in US starts believing strongly that police abuse has gone out of control, and if politicians can't pretend it doesn't exist anymore, then something will be done about it. Otherwise, everyone will keep pretending there are just "some bad apples" here and there, and it's not actually a systemic problem.
- Shivetya 12y agoI follow stories through http://www.policemisconduct.net/ http://www.policemisconduct.net/ which is from the CATO Institute. There are people out there trying to stop this abuse but its an uphill battle against an establishment whose strength might even exceed the Teachers groups
- lizzard 12y agoPart of the point of an app could be to help people to know how to properly document their interactions with police.
- ck2 12y agoThere is a much easier answer. Take the billions of dollars the pentagon and homeland security is giving to these departments and instead of buying useless armored tanks and other nonsense, buy a wearable camera for every cop in the country. There are 700,000 cops in the usa. Bulk purchase at $100 each is $70 Million. Throw in $30 million for tech support, downloading, etc. and you are at a "mere" $100 million. Since it is a government program, budget it at five times the cost and you are still "only" at half a billion, which is a fraction of the pentagon's program. Fund it now, make it a law they have to wear it at all times while on duty or instant termination. "suspects" will behave better, cops will behave better, it is already proven.
- nmrm2 12y agoNot that I disagree with your proposal at all, but you're probably significantly under-estimating the cost. The cameras need to be "designed for LEO!", so double their price. You also need very expensive retention technology and obscene amounts of backup space (even though the video always disappears whenever someone asks for it anyways)
- discardorama 12y agoThey are not buying the equipment; it is being gifted to them by the DoD. It's like someone walked up to you and said: would you like a free hammer? And you think to yourself, I don't need one but hey! free hammer! So you take it. Then suddenly every problem starts looking like a nail...
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- onedev 12y agoLet's fund em.
- zerop 12y agoOn similar lines 'I paid a bribe' from India.. http://www.ipaidabribe.com/reports/paid#gsc.tab=0 http://www.ipaidabribe.com/reports/paid#gsc.tab=0
- KMag 12y agoIt's great to see kids doing great work for the public good. Though, I do wonder how the app compares/will compare with the ACLU app for the same purpose.
- downandout 12y agoSomebody call Marissa Mayer....I smell a $30 million payday for these kids. Seriously though, they saw a problem in their daily lives and tried to use technology to solve it. If they repeat that process enough times, eventually they will succeed with something. Based upon the screenshots, this specific app looks like it could use some polish, but then that could be said about Yo and Snapchat.
- gojomo 12y agoNow if they just join YC, then I can say I called it 6 months ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7235346 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7235346 | YC (S14): "Yelp for Police Officers"
- mhluongo 12y agoWooh, that's my high school! Very cool.