The American Civil Liberties Union, watchdog for the under-trodden, has recently come out with a smartphone app to enable people to upload images and video of crimes against humanity. The app was launched on Thursday, April 30, 2015 with the intention of preserving video of misconduct amongst the police even if the phone is damaged or destroyed.

The app is named “Mobile Justice CA” and is meant to merge “the power of the people and technology” as well as with the ACLU. Hector Villagra, the executive director for the ACLU of Southern California, told reporters Thursday. “We are so proud to put an innovative new tool in people’s hands, empowering people to know, to assert and to protect their rights.”

A senior staff attorney with the ACLU, Peter Bibring said, “As we’ve seen in headlines over the previous few months, recordings by members of the public is a crucial check on police abuse…. We’ve seen a number of examples of high-profile incidents of abuse and unlawful shootings or killings that never would have come to light if someone wouldn’t have pulled out their phone and taken video.”

In the states of New York, Missouri and Oregon have had similar apps rolled out to combat undue force. The app developed for New York was specifically developed to examine the “stop and frisk” practice. Since being launched in 2012, it has generated over 30,000 videos sent to the NYPD.

The app will begin recording after installing on an iPhone or android and flag the location of the incident also allowing others nearby to come and take images. All of the images are uploaded by producing a duplicate to the ACLU and then locks the screen from having the image accessed by any else.

In a collaboration with the Oakland-based Ella Baker Center for Human Rights, Patrisse Cullors, who is a director at the center, pledges to make sure the app is being used.