This New App Notifies You Every Time Someone Is Killed By The Police

Over the past year or two, police brutality has become one of the most prominent issues in American politics — specifically, police shootings.

In 2015 alone, police shootings accounted for more than 980 deaths, which is double the typical national average. In many cases, most notably the deaths of Michael Brown and Tamir Rice, those killed were young, often unarmed black men; and more often than not, their decorated killers were not charged with a crime.

Of course, for police officers, using deadly force is sometimes necessary. But, with increasing frequency, the deaths attributed to police violence aren't entirely justified — and this has become a serious problem.

To respond to the growing issue, developer Josh Begley created a new app called Archives + Absences, which logs every single police killing across the nation. Each time someone is shot and killed by a cop, the app will send users a notification, detailing both the location of the incident and the name of the person killed. The data included is sourced from The Guardian.

Archives + Absences is only one of several sites created by Begley to keep the public apprised of government-sanctioned violence. The developer also runs Officer Involved, a site that records police-related deaths across the country, and @DroneStream, a Twitter page that documents all US drone strikes. Begley made an app for @DroneStream, but it was quickly deleted by Apple for what they deemed “excessively crude or objectionable content.”

Archives +Absences debuted Wednesday, and is currently available for free on the App Store.

Citations: New App Sends a Notification Every Time Someone Is Killed by Police (Complex)