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Mobile phones are helping to empower Indigenous communities fight back against police brutality in Australia.
A NSW police officer was recently charged over the alleged assault of an Indigenous teenager in Sydney thanks in part to footage recorded on a mobile phone.
In the footage, the teen can be heard telling the police officer that he plans to "crack his jaw", and then the officer walks towards the teen, grabs him, and uses his leg to sweep the child to the ground.
It's incidents like this the National Justice Project hopes will be recorded using the CopWatch app, which they will relaunch as part of a wider campaign to end racial discrimination.
The group wants to better assist Indigenous Australians expose police misconduct.
The app has three key features: It explains individuals' legal rights, alerts emergency contacts to the user's location and has a record button to upload content.
George Newhouse, chief executive of the National Justice Project, said CopWatch had been crucial in securing accountability for police brutality and misconduct.
"Without community awareness about our right to film police, we may have never known about many brutal assaults against harmless people by police forces across the country," Mr Newhouse said.
Mr Newhouse will join Indigenous leaders and activists to launch the campaign in Sydney on Tuesday.
THREE FEATURES OF COPWATCH APP:
* Geo pins phone's location and texts messages to three emergency contacts
* Record function to upload incidents of alleged police misconduct
* Explains legal rights when recording police in public
