Chicago civil rights attorney Basileios J. Foutris got tired of
getting phone calls from potential clients who captured footage of police
misconduct only to have their cell phones taken by the cops. Even if the phones
were returned, the footage was always erased. After he got three calls like
this in the same day, he decided to do something about it. He developed an app
that sends footage directly to Dropbox (without pushing buttons, etc.) for
rapid permanent preservation.
The app is called Fi-Vo Film and it can be downloaded on an
Android or iPhone and will prevent the destruction of the video. The app is
simple in execution. By opening the app, the user is taken directly to the
video function of the phone. The phone immediately starts recording - there is
no need to hit the record button. As the video is taken, it is streamed live to
the user's Dropbox account (the user will be directed to Dropbox to create or
sync to a free Dropbox account when the app is downloaded). If the video is
deleted from the phone, or if the phone itself is destroyed, it doesn't matter
- the video survives on the Dropbox account.
“This is a common problem,” said Foutris. “It’s not surprising
that the police do not want to be recorded when they are violating someone’s
constitutional rights. This app levels the playing field – it will no longer be
the police’s word versus the victim’s word because Fi-Vo Film prevents
destruction of the video,” explained Foutris.
While this app was designed to prevent police from destroying
evidence of their misconduct, the app itself has limitless uses. For instance,
users do not ever have to worry that their video footage will be lost forever
due to a failure to manually back-up a recording if their phone is lost, stolen
or destroyed. By recording any event through the app, users insure that their
video will be preserved without having to do anything else.
The app can be downloaded directly from the google or apple app
stores. Also, a link is provided to those stores from Fi-Vo Film’s website:
http://www.fivofilm.com.