The ACLU of Michigan is announcing a new mobile app that will allow residents to film police encounters on their phone, and send them to the ACLU moments after the recording is over.

The app, called Mobile Justice MI, which is planned for a release on Wednesday , uploads a video immediately and automatically after a user finishes recording — and a team will later review the video and pursue action if a complaint has merit, said Darrell Dawsey, a spokesman for ACLU Michigan.

"The primary purpose of the app is to empower people," Dawsey said. "We think that it's important because in this day and age, in a time when we're seeing so many lives, especially black and brown lives, being taken … we think that it's important to be able to document what's going on."

The app also comes with an optional "witness" feature that alerts other users to a video being recorded and that phone's location. The feature is designed in case there is a developing situation and several people have gathered to record in one area.

The app also allows for a way to file incident reports and send them directly to the ACLU of Michigan. It will be available for Apple and Android devices.

Dawsey noted in a news release that the app is needed in the wake of several controversial police encounters, including the shooting of Terrance Kellom in Detroit at the hands of an Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent, and the beating of Floyd Dent in Inkster.

The app's developer, Quadrant 2, is also known for designing an app to monitor when New York police were conducting stop and frisk searches.

Dawsey noted that the app's release isn't meant to suggest that all police are bad.

"But we understand that there's a problem, and this is a tool towards helping people to address it," Dawsey said. "We do think it's a step in the right direction."

Lt. John Michalke with the Macomb County Sheriff's Office was largely supportive of citizens videotaping the police, though he added he was concerned about privacy of the citizens involved in police encounters.

"[For] officers in the process of doing their job legally and justifiably, we don't fear people videotaping," Michalke said.

And on the subject of videotaping in general, Michalke added, "I think departments are in concurrence that it's a good thing ... to help protect both police and the citizenry at large."

The ACLU advises that while dealing with police, users of the new app should make clear that they are reaching for their phones, accessing the app, and if an officer tries to stop them they should not resist.

ACLU of Michigan is the latest state branch to introduce a mobile video-recording app. Other ACLU branches with a similarly-themed app include Missouri, Mississippi, Oregon, Nebraska and California.

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