As the US conversation on law enforcement has led to an examination of ways to police the police, an iPhone Shortcut designed by Robert Petersen of Arizona appears to be a handy tool for personal safety.
"Hey Siri, I'm getting pulled over,” is the command one has to utter in order to alert the Apple device to pause any ongoing audio, decrease its brightness and enable “do not disturb” mode. It will also send a relevant text message about the stop to a designated contact and begin recording via the iPhone’s front-facing camera.
The recorded footage can then be sent to a predetermined phone or email contact.
A similar shortcut created by Petersen, called Pulled Over by Police, was the subject of conversation in a 2018 thread that received 1,500 upvotes in Reddit’s Shortcuts subreddit.
Sacramento, California, civil rights attorney Jeff Kravitz told local outlet CBS13 that while there is a clear benefit for those who may be pulled over by cops, there are some limitations that one should keep in mind.
“Officers are public people, you have every right to film them while they’re carrying out their official duties,” he told the outlet, however, he noted that one cannot record an officer in a private place such as a police station.
“That would be an invasion of privacy, you couldn’t film them on private property, that would be an invasion of privacy. But these apps are, it’s my understanding, they work when you are being pulled over,” he argued.
