App that lets you record police, send video to ACLU debuts in Minn.

Updated: 1 p.m. | Posted: 8:15 a.m.

The Minnesota branch of the American Civil Liberties Union on Friday launched a mobile phone app that will allow citizens to record their interactions with police, and then transfer the footage immediately to the ACLU.

The civil rights group said the Mobile Justice App will help hold police officers accountable.

The app automatically uploads recorded footage into the cloud so that if the users lose their phones, the footage will still be accessible by the ACLU.

"There has been an upsurge in the number of video tapes of police officer conduct over the last several years," said Charles Samuelson, executive director of the ACLU of Minnesota. "And what we have seen is an upsurge in law enforcement people seizing these phones and in essence destroying the information by removing SIM cards."

Samuelson said the app has a function which allows people to send an alert to other users when police stop them. When users see the alert, they can come to the location of the incident and record the interaction. It also has a "Know Your Rights" section in in English and Spanish, which provides information about the person's rights when stopped by the police.

The Minneapolis Police Federation criticized the launch of the app, and said it will jeopardize police investigations by "dispatching people to crime scenes."

"They are going to send people into potentially dangerous situations to witness what they are perceiving to be police misconduct," said Bob Kroll, president of Minneapolis Police Federation. "In effect, what they are doing is crowding an already chaotic situation."

The app, which has already been in use in eight other states, was simultaneously launched Friday in 10 other states.

It's available in Apple's App Store and Google Play.