201-470-4181March 12, 2021
Hey Siri, “I’m getting pulled over” is all you have to say for your phone to preserve and document all the evidence with your encounter with a police officer.
By N.A. Pagliara, Esquire of Pagliara Law Group, P.A. posted in Criminal Defense Blog on Friday, March 12, 2021.
Have you ever been pulled over by a police officer for speeding, running a red light or stop sign or even for an arbitrary reason that was not true such as the officer said your were swerving as a pretext to stop you and violate your rights. Or maybe you did have some to drink and decided to make to mistake to drive.
In any event, by the time the police officer approaches your window you do not have time to open the phone and start the recording app to document the encounter with the police officer.
Although there are good police officers who protect the public, there are also some that violate constitutional rights in public, at your home or even when you are pulled over in your car. It is also heightened in the race context as you have seen with George Floyd and countless others when they encounter police officers. Luckily, in the George Floyd case the cell phone video was able to make the officer accountable and the family was able to receive a $27 million dollar pretrial settlement. Other times a person with no witnesses around needs to access the camera on their phone quickly and secretly.
Thanks to a app shortcut that you can download for free called “Siri I’m getting pulled over” can document all the encounters, preserve evidence and hold police accountable while preserving your constitutional rights. Once you load this (free) shortcut onto your iPhone, all you need to do now is say the words “Hey Siri, I’m getting pulled over” and it will start a series of prompts. It will lower the light on your phone, pause any music being played, and start recording video from your front-facing camera. It can also send your current GPS location and a copy of that video to an emergency contact, though you’ll need to approve of this ahead of time by certain messages to complete these steps.
Apparently iphones have a police shortcut link and it does a bunch of things when you tell Siri you're pulled over…?
— DesiBAE aka Big Horchata (@sarcasticstyle) June 10, 2020
This is REALLY important if it's legit, all my iphone ppl need to watch this and share. pic.twitter.com/Dp7E3Uj2So
Keep in mind this is not a app to download in the Apple store but instead a Shortcut to download. It will only work on IOS 12 or newer so make sure you upgrade to the latest IOS. Next, you want to make sure you download the Shortcuts app which is located here on the App store. Then visit this link on your mobile device from the browser to set-up the shortcut. Only use Safari browser and not Chrome or any other. Make sure your phone can load unverified shortcuts (go to Settings > Shortcuts and toggle Allow Untrusted Shortcuts to allow this) and allow access to your location, which you can see how to do here.
Take back the power of the police having a dash cam or body cam that may not be on all the time to help you. This is similar to your own personal body cam that is on when you need it to be and can be done so quickly and surreptitiously.
AUTHOR: Nicholas A. Pagliara, Esq. Founder, Chairman of the Board and Managing Attorney of Pagliara Law Group, PA.
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Tags and Topics: DUI, Criminal Defense, George Floyd, Siri, Apple, traffic tickets, pulled over, police brutality, constitutional law
