Smartphone Applications Continue to Aid Response Against Street Harassment

Hollaback! our partner organization is built on using mobile technologies to stop street harassment. Their mission states: 

Hollaback! is a movement dedicated to ending street harassment using mobile technology. Street harassment is one of the most pervasive forms of gender-based violence and one of the least legislated against... The explosion of mobile technology has given us an unprecedented opportunity to end street harassment—and with it, the opportunity to take on one of the final new frontiers for women’s rights around the world.

By collecting women and LGBTQ folks’ stories and pictures in a safe and share-able way with our very own mobile phone applications, Hollaback! is creating a crowd-sourced initiative to end street harassment. Hollaback! breaks the silence that has perpetuated sexual violence internationally, asserts that any and all gender-based violence is unacceptable, and creates a world where we have an option—and, more importantly—a response.

Now the New York Civil Liberties Union has caught on. From The Root:

Stop-and-Frisk App Users on the Rise

The Android tool for recording police wrongdoing has taken off since its release last week.

Ever witnessed what appeared to be police harassment and wished that you could do something about it? Now you can. On June 6 the New York Civil Liberties Union rolled out its Stop and Frisk Watch smartphone app, a tool that lets bystanders record and report unlawful police encounters.

Since its debut, more than 75,000 people have downloaded it, and thousands of videos have been submitted. "Our staff is monitoring the videos as they come in," NYCLU spokeswoman Jennifer Carnig told The Root. The clips will then become an active part of the organization's campaign to end stop and frisk -- the policy in which New York City police can interrogate and search residents without cause. The images will be included in the group's public-education, communications and lobbying efforts and may also be used to litigate cases against officers.

"The NYPD tells New Yorkers that if they see something, say something, and the NYCLU agrees," explains Carnig, whose group is co-organizing a silent march on Sunday to protest stop and frisk. "If people see police misconduct or an inappropriate stop and frisk, we want them to have the tools to say something about it."

Read more on The Root. 
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Have you downloaded mobile apps to report street harassment??