Chris Rock in 2015 took selfies before his encounters when police pulled him over for “Driving While Black” three times in two months.
From Colorlines (2015):
Chris Rock began chronicling the number of times he gets stopped by the police on his social media channels in February. The posts have since prompted a public conversation among performers on racial profiling.
Rock’s first pulled-over pic appeared on Instagram with the caption, “Just got pulled over by the cops wish me luck,” and was followed by another two weeks later on Feb 27 with the note, “I’m not even driving stop by the cops again.” His latest, and third in two months, was a nighttime tweet, ”Stopped by the cops again wish me luck,” accompanied by a selfie from the driver’s seat. His tweet got the attention of four-time Emmy winner Isaiah Washington, who replied to Rock’s tweet, advising him to “adapt.”
Washington sold his Mercedes G500 and bought not one Prius but three “with windows that are tinted darker than the windows that were tinted in my $90,000 vehicle.” The traffic stops stopped. Washington went on CNN to explain that he was not implying racial profiling would stop just by changing car models.
But now, thanks to Apple’s iOS 12 update there is a Shortcuts app for Driving While Black (Business Insider-Tech):
Arizona resident Robert Petersen used this update to create his own third-party shortcut, initially known as “Police” and now known as “I’m Getting Pulled Over.” It aims to assist users during traffic stops by automatically recording their interactions with police officers.
[…]
First developed in 2018, the shortcut activates the Do Not Disturb feature, turning off all incoming calls, messages, and notifications. This is to reduce the chance that a police officer will be startled by your phone ringing or flashing, and act aggressively.
Next, it’ll send a text message with your current location to all the contacts that you’ve selected beforehand.
At the same time, your phone will start recording a video with the front camera (i.e. the one above the phone’s screen).
Yes, it’s come to this. Business Insider has the download and installation instructions for the app.
Don’t bother cluttering up your phone with this app if you’re white. You won’t need it.