Since the crisis in Ferguson, Missouri, has caused mass confusion and uncertainty regarding the topic of police brutality, three teenagers in Georgia have created an app that they hope will promote positive interactions and eliminate negative interactions with police officers.
The app, named Five-O, was released on August 18th and is the brainchild of three siblings: Caleb Christian, 14, Asha Christian, 15, and Ima Christian, 16. Concerned by reports in the news of police brutality and motivated by their parents to find a solution, the Christian siblings created Five-O so that people could have a way to document any and all encounters with police officers. As Ima said, “We want to make sure that people can detail their interactions whether they are positive or negative. The positive interactions should be a model for the negative interactions.”
Documenting and rating run-ins with police officers is really quite simple. There is a feature on the app called “Create an Incident Report,” which allows the user to input important data, such as the location the incident occurred and whether your experience was positive or negative. If it was negative, there are options available to list how it was negative. You can also give the officer a grade based on his courteousness, and you can grade your overall interaction with the officer. To offset any bias and to help understand the report better, the report also asks for your general opinion on the police. You can even do a quick search on incident reports done in your area to get an average courtesy rating and an average overall interaction rating for your local station.
But rating interactions with police officers is not the only service Five-O provides. The app also lets you search for police stations in your area, which is a great feature if you need help and aren’t sure where the nearest police station is. If you’re just lost in general and don’t need any help from the police, there is also a feature on the app that will locate your position for you on a map. In addition to these safety features, Five-O also promotes the concept of group solidarity and awareness in one’s own community through the app’s feature “Organize Your Community.” As the video for the app suggests, you can use the message board to rally community support and form awareness groups in your community. This allows you to become proactive in ensuring your community’s safety.
Five-O is currently only available for Android, but you can go to Pinetart Inc.’s website (Pinetart Inc. is the company the Christian siblings founded and created Five-O under) and join the mailing list to be notified by e-mail when the IOS version for Apple is available for download. You can also like Five-O on Facebook to get updates on the app, or you can watch this YouTube video, which explains Five-O more fully.
The Christian siblings’ desire to get involved with their own community along with their passion for helping other communities is both inspiring and admirable. In an age where people tend to underestimate the power of teenagers and attribute technology to the downfall of humanity, Caleb, Asha, and Ima are hard at work at proving the world otherwise. And they’re succeeding at it, too.