智能手機應用促美國警察執法改革

The video of the fatal shooting of an unarmed black man by a white police officer in South Carolina is seen by some advocates of police reform as evidence of the rising power of technological weapons in their fight.

在一些警務改革的倡導者看來，一段記錄了發生在南卡羅來納州一名白人警官開槍擊斃一名手無寸鐵的黑人男性的視頻， 可以用來印證科技武器在爭取警務改革的鬥爭中開始起到越來越大的作用。

That includes the smartphone camera, and with it, a growing number of apps produced by activists that streamline the process of capturing and broadcasting videos of police interacting with citizens.

這包括了智能手機和伴隨着智能手機興起的許許多多的應用程序，活動分子們開發的這些應用程序可以將記錄和傳播警民互動視頻的流程變得很簡單。

“A lot of times, until these videos show up, the officer is going to walk,” said Darren Baptiste, the creator of Cop Watch, an iPhone app that automatically begins recording when you tap its icon and automatically uploads the video to YouTube when the recording is stopped.

“在這些視頻出現之前，很多時候（打死黑人的）警察會一走了之”，一個名叫Cop Watch的iphone應用程序的開發者達倫·巴普提斯特（Darren Baptise）表示。這個應用程序在你點開程序的時候就會自動開始錄像，而當錄像停止的時候應用程序會自動將視頻上傳到YouTube。

Mr. Baptiste, 47, is an app developer in Toronto, where several episodes of force by police — some of them eventually deemed unlawful — have been captured by citizens wielding cameras over the last few years. He said that when photographing the police during intense situations, people often get flustered — they may forget to hit record, or may not know how, or where, to upload a video. There have also been cases in which police, sometimes in violation of the law, confiscated cameras or phones containing stored recordings.

今年47歲的巴普提斯特是一名多倫多的應用程序開發者。而他所在的城市近幾年有好幾段由公民拿起相機拍攝視頻記錄了警察使用暴力的場景，其中好幾起最終都被判定爲非法行爲。巴普提斯特說，人們在這種緊張時刻拍攝警察通常會很慌亂——很有可能會忘記按下錄像鍵或者完全不懂如何上傳視頻或者去哪上傳。以前也有過警察在違法的時候把圍觀者拍下他們違法視頻的相機或者手機沒收掉的情況。

The app, which Mr. Baptiste created with the Network for the Elimination of Police Violence, an advocacy group based in Toronto, is meant to make recording the police easier and to make the footage less vulnerable to confiscation by the authorities. Once a user uploads a video, the group is notified, and its staff can review and, if necessary, alert the news media and authorities of any apparent wrongdoing by police.

這個應用程序是巴普提斯特和一個多倫多名叫“停止警察暴力網絡”（Network for the Elimination of Police Violence)的倡導組織一起開發的，其目標是把拍攝記錄警察變得更簡單，並且讓視頻更難被權力機構沒收。每次有用戶上傳視頻的時候，他們的組織都會收到通知，隨後就會有組織人員審查視頻，在有必要的時候他們會將任何明顯的警方過錯通知給新聞媒體和有關權力機構。

Though it is only the Latest in a string of cases in which amateur photography has been used to document officers’ use of force, the South Carolina shooting demonstrates the power of citizen-captured video in the most salient way. Michael T. Slager, the officer in the case, initially said that Walter L. Scott, a driver who had been stopped for a broken taillight, had taken his stun gun during a scuffle. The video, captured on a cellphone by a bystander, instead showed the officer shooting Mr. Scott eight times while he ran away. On Tuesday, Mr. Slager was charged with murder.

雖然這只是最近一系列非專業攝影記錄警察暴力事件中的最新一次，南卡槍擊事件還是非常明顯的展現出公民拍攝視頻的巨大作用。涉案警官邁克爾·T·斯雷格（Michael T. Slager） 最開始說因爲駕駛汽車的尾燈破損而被他攔下的司機沃爾特·L·斯科特（Walter L. Scott）在扭打過程中掏出了手槍。然而一個旁觀者用手機拍下的視頻記錄下了在斯科特逃跑過程中這名警官八次開槍射擊當事人的場景。斯雷格警官在週二以謀殺罪名被指控。

Cop Watch is one of a number of programs for smartphones aimed at helping citizens broadcast encounters with the police. In 2011, during the height of the Occupy Wall Street movement, Jason Van Anden, an artist and technologist, created “I’m Getting Arrested,” an app that could automatically send text messages to a list of prepopulated close contacts with the push of a button. Later, inspired by Mr. Van Anden’s app, the New York Civil Liberties Union developed the “Stop and Frisk Watch” app, a response to a line of policing tactics championed by then-mayor Michael Bloomberg’s administration.

Cop Watch只是許許多多爲了方便公民記錄和傳播與警方衝突場景而設計的智能手機程序之一。在2011年佔領華爾街運動發展到最高峯的時候，名爲傑森·凡·安頓（Jason Van Anden)的藝術家和工藝師創建了名爲“我要被捕了（I’m Getting Arrested）”的應用程序，這個程序允許用戶通過簡單按鍵就可以自動發送短信給一系列提前設定好的緊密聯繫人名單 。隨後，在凡·安頓的應用程序的啓發下，紐約公民自由聯盟（New York Civil Liberties Union）也開發了名爲“Stop and Frisk Watch”的應用程序，作爲對當時紐約市長邁克爾·布隆伯格（Michael Bloomberg）政府擁護的警務策略的響應。

The N.Y.C.L.U. app allows a bystander to record from an Android-based phone or iPhone by just pressing a button on the phone’s frame. The app can send a report of a police encounter directly to the group for evaluation.

紐約公民自由聯盟的應用程序讓路人可以從安卓手機或者蘋果手機直接按下手機側面的按鍵來錄像，程序可以直接把與警方衝突的舉報發送給公民自由聯盟，由他們來進行評估。

“We, sadly, thought the technology would be equally useful for young men of color in New York City,” said Jennifer Carnig, the director of communications for the N.Y.C.L.U. “Of course, in New York City if you touch your pocket to get your phone during an encounter with the police, you can end up dead.”

“不幸的是，我們以爲這項技術對於紐約市的有色種族年輕人也同樣有用，”紐約公民自由聯盟的媒體總監珍尼佛·佳妮格（Jennifer Garnig）表示。“當然，在紐約，如果你在和警方衝突過程中伸手掏口袋拿手機的話，你最後可能會喪命。”

Mrs. Carnig said the app was used heavily last year during the protests surrounding the #BlackLivesMatter movement, which was spurred by the police shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager in Ferguson, Mo.

佳妮格說，去年因爲美國密蘇里州弗格森發生的警方擊斃一名手無寸鐵的黑人青年邁克爾·布朗（Michael Brown）而發起的“黑人性命也很重要”( #BlackLivesMatter)抗議示威遊行活動期間，他們的應用程序有很高的使用量。

The episodes also brought greater interest in police-worn body cameras, which record every police interaction with a citizen and upload the video to a server, where it would be available for later review. The Obama administration has called for $263 million in funding for police departments to outfit their officers with cameras.

這些事件也讓公衆對給警方佩戴隨身相機產生了更大的興趣，這些相機能夠記錄下每一次警方與公民之間的互動，並將視頻上傳到一個服務器，可以用於隨後需要的審查。奧巴馬政府已經要求撥款2.63億美元給各地警察局來爲警官配備相機。

At least some police advocates are comfortable, to a degree, in outfitting officers with body cameras and wearable technology to monitor police encounters with citizens. But the details of how that process might go has, in some states, has slowed overall adoption of the process.

至少有些警方的支持者還能夠在一定程度上接受給警官們配備隨身相機和可穿戴設備，用以監控警方和民衆之間的衝突。但是具體到此項目的進程，有些州的配置過程還是非常緩慢。

“There are privacy concerns for officers, victims and members of the community that need to be fully vetted,” said Ryan Alphin, executive director of the South Carolina Law Enforcement Officers’ Association, who is currently lobbying the state Legislature on two bills that would incorporate body camera technology into the rank-and file law enforcement agencies in the state.

“有些涉及到警官、受害者和相關羣體的隱私權的事務還是需要全面審查，”南卡羅來納州執法委員協會的執行理事瑞恩·阿爾芬（Ryan Alphin）說道，他正在遊說州立法機構通過兩項法案，讓隨身相機技術普及到州內執法機構的所有普通成員。

Two of the largest police departments in the country, Los Angeles and Houston, are in the early stages of deploying body cameras to all of their field officers and dozens of smaller departments are well underway in their plans.

全國最大的兩個警察局洛杉磯和休斯頓警局已經開始爲所有出勤警官配備隨身相機，許多其他小規模的警局也已經開始這項計劃。

Scott Greenwood, a civil rights lawyer who focuses on police misconduct and who has consulted with police departments on how to deploy cameras, said that the rise of smartphone cameras had spurred police interest in body cameras.

斯科特·格林伍德（Scott Greenwood）是一名專注於警方不法行爲領域的民權律師，他也和警局就如何開展配備相機的事務進行過商議，他表示智能手機相機的興起讓警方對隨身相機有了很大興趣。

“Law enforcement should not hope to rely on the existence of external video of witnesses,” he said. “It is best for the profession, community relations, and solid, constitutional policing to have the police departments create that record itself, and the best way to do that is on the officer.”

“執法不應該寄希望於依賴外界目擊者拍攝的視頻。擁有警察局自己創建的視頻記錄對於這一職業、社區關係和強有力又符合憲法的警務都有極大的好處，而記錄的最好方式就是讓警官佩戴記錄設備。” 格林伍德說。

When it comes to citizen-captured video, there are few questions regarding legality, said Mickey Osterreicher, general counsel of the National Press Photographers Association. Mr. Osterreicher said that he talked to people on a weekly basis who had been told by police to stop recording their activities. In almost all cases, the police are wrong to do so.

而對於公民拍攝的視頻，合法性幾乎不會成爲問題，美國國家攝影記者協會（National Press Photographers Association）的總顧問米基·奧斯特瑞琪（Mickey Osterreicher）表示。他說他每週都會和被警察制止拍攝警方活動過的民衆進行談話。基本上在所有這些情況中警方都沒有權利這樣做。

“If you are in a public place, you have the right to record anything you see,” he said. “That is the First Amendment.”

“只要在公共場合，你就有權記錄下任何你看到的東西，這是美國憲法第一修正案規定的，” 奧斯特瑞琪說。

There are exceptions for safety and for interference with police work. An officer can tell a camera-wielding bystander to step back a few feet, or to step out of a dangerous place, like a busy street. Mr. Osterreicher said that he frequently conducted training sessions with police departments on their responsibilities when being filmed.

在威脅人蔘安全和妨礙警方執法的情況下有一些例外。警察可以讓拿着相機拍攝的路人後退幾英尺或者離開像繁忙的馬路這楊有危險的區域。 奧斯特瑞琪說他經常爲警方提供相關培訓，讓警官們學習自己在被拍攝情況下的責任。

“The younger officers get it — they’re used to being filmed,” he said, and some also see the footage as a way to clear up any accusations of wrongdoing. “The older officers are the ones who sometimes see it as questioning their authority.”

“年輕警官很理解——他們習慣被相機拍攝，”他說，而且有些年輕警官也會把錄像帶看成面對指控自己執法中犯錯時證明自己清白的方式。“年長一些的警官會覺得這是對他們權威的質疑。”

So far, the Cop Watch app has not garnered evidence of police misconduct. Usage has been low. In the year that the app has been available, Mr. Baptiste said that about 2,000 people have signed in to the program, and about 1,000 videos have been uploaded, most of which show people trying out the program.

到目前爲止，Cop Watch應用程序還沒有蒐集到任何警方違法行爲的證據。這個應用程序的使用量還很低。在應用程序推出的那年，巴普提斯特說有約2千人登陸過他們的應用程序，有約1千個視頻上傳，但是大部門視頻都是用戶對程序的測試。

“This is truly one of those things that you hope people wouldn’t want to use it,” Mr. Baptiste said. “The main point of this app is to make people talk about why we have an app like this in the first place.”

“這真的就是那種你不希望民衆想用到的東西，”巴普提斯特說，“有這個程序的主要目的就是讓大家來討論有這種應用程序出現的原因。”