With nationwide protests highlighting the ongoing fight against police brutality, video is playing a predominant role in identifying law enforcement misconduct. From capturing protests to traffic stops, videos are essential players in cataloging police confrontations. Now, a Siri shortcut known as “I’m getting pulled over” is making recording easier than ever.
To use the Siri shortcut, you need to download it to your iPhone (instructions below). Once downloaded, you can activate the shortcut by stating “Hey Siri, I’m being pulled over.”
When the shortcut is triggered, it will automatically:
- Dim your iPhone.
- Activate Do Not Disturb mode.
- Pause music being played.
- Start recording video from your front-facing camera.
- Send your current location and a copy of the recording to an emergency contact, but you need to manually confirm pop-up messages to complete these actions.
Robert Petersen first published the shortcut in 2018, but has been updating the shortcut as it’s gaining new attention.
Apparently iphones have a police shortcut link and it does a bunch of things when you tell Siri you’re pulled over…?
— DesiBAE aka Big Horchata (@sarcasticstyle) June 10, 2020
This is REALLY important if it’s legit, all my iphone ppl need to watch this and share. pic.twitter.com/Dp7E3Uj2So
NOTE: This is an unverified shortcut, meaning that Apple has not authorized it and can’t help you if anything happens to your phone as a result of setting this up.
To download the shortcut, follow these steps:
- Make sure your iPhone is updated to at least iOS 12.
- Download the Shortcuts app from the App store. (It may already be on your phone.)
- Allow unverified shortcuts on your phone. Go to Settings –> Shortcuts –> select Allow Untrusted Shortcuts.
NOTE: If you haven’t used a shortcut yet, you will need to create and use one before it will allow you to use an unverified shortcut. Setting up your emergency contact is a smart shortcut to have on your phone. - Visit this link on your mobile device from your Safari browser to set up the shortcut — other browsers won’t work.
- Give the shortcut permission to access your location.
Try to do a test run of the shortcut in a nonemergency situation, and you should be good to go. As of publishing, there isn’t an Android equivalent to the shortcut.