Five-O (mobile application)

Five-O is a mobile application created by three African-American siblings from Georgia, USA.^[1] The three, Ima, Asha, and Caleb Christian,^[2] aged 16, 15, 14 and 10 respectively, in 2014, created the application as an attempt to provide a solution to the issues generated from interaction between law enforcement and citizens, such as the shooting of Michael Brown, and their own traumatic experience with two police officers.^[3][4] The application was launched on 18 August, 2014.^[5] The application is available on both Android and iOS platforms, and has been developed in collaboration with Pinetart Inc., a company developing mobile applications they have founded.^[6][7] The term Five-O is American slang for law enforcement, based on Hawaii Five-O, a television programme.^[8]

The application allows a user to maintenance of records in the form of a short description of interaction with an individual police officer, and a rating of the degree of courtesy and professionalism exhibited by the officer. It allows a user to record his/her personal details such as race and age. Such a record would be available for access as an when needed.^[9] The application would provide a record of positive interactions, such as that of officers saving a pet, this record could be used to identify positive prototypes that other officers would aim to emulate. The application also provides information about the civil rights of a citizen from American Civil Liberties Union.^[10] The application is available for download on Android devices and is pending approval from iStore.^[11]

Elahe Izadi blogging for The Washington Post describes the application as Yelp like, she states that the application demonstrates that the black community in America doesn't implicitly trust the police, quoting surveys that inform that 70 percent of black men perceive police discrimination with relation with respect to whites, or 25 percent of black males aged between 18 to 34 experienced abuse at the hands of the police.^[12] Fatima Mazhar writing for carbonated.tv considers this application as one of the positives that has come out of the Michael Brown shooting.^[13]

References

1. Lewis, Rence. "Teens create app for rating encounters with local law enforcement". AlJazera America. Retrieved 22 August 2014.
2. Capps, Kriston (2014-08-15). "These Georgia Teens Created a Yelp to Rate the Police". The Atlantic Citylab. Retrieved 18 August 2014.
3. "Revenge of the nerds: How three teenagers invented an app to police the cops". The Economist. 28 December 2015. Retrieved 29 December 2015.
4. Borison, Rebecca (2014-08-16). "Three Teenagers Created An App To Document Police Abuse". Business Insider - India. Retrieved 18 August 2014.
5. Dusenbery, Maya (2014-08-18). "Teens create new app to hold police accountable". www.feministing.com. Retrieved 18 August 2014.
6. Hyndman, Jessica (2014-08-18). "Teens Create App To Document Police Violence In Wake Of Michael Brown Shooting". www.mtv.com. Retrieved 25 August 2014.
7. "UPCOMING: GEORGIA TEENS CREATE APP ‘FIVE-O’ TO DOCUMENT POLICE ABUSE". www.blackcelebkids.com. 2014-08-15. Retrieved 18 August 2014.
8. Tom Dalzell (25 July 2008). The Routledge Dictionary of Modern American Slang and Unconventional English. Routledge. p. 369. ISBN 1-134-19478-1.
9. "Georgia Teens Develop App to Document Police Abuse". For Harriet. 2014-08-14. Retrieved 18 August 2014.
10. Grenoble, Ryan (2014-08-18). "Teens Create 'Five-O' App To Help Document Police Brutality". www.huffingtonpost.com. Retrieved 20 August 2014.
11. "Teens Develop ‘Five-O’ App to Track Police Brutality". www.theburtonwire.com. 2014-08-20. Retrieved 21 August 2014.
12. Izadi, Elahe (2014-08-18). "These Georgia teenagers developed a Yelp-for-police app". www.washingtonpost.com. Retrieved 22 August 2014.
13. Mazhar, Fatima. "There Is Some Good Coming Out Of The Ferguson Protests". carbonated.tv. Retrieved 25 August 2014.