App helps San Diego residents document police encounters
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Photo illustration: Brendan Lynch/Axios. Photo: Mark Boster/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images
A group of activists built an app to allow the public to document interactions with police.
Why it matters: Cop Stop SD empowers people when they're stopped by police and creates a database to monitor police behavior, Laila Aziz, director of the advocacy group Pillars of the Community, told Axios.
Zoom in: You can use the app to record an encounter with police, inputting basic information like your name, telephone number, email and the perceived harm that was done.
- The complaints aren't publicly visible, and feed into a database managed by Pillars.
- The group used to collect reports on a website, but the recently launched app makes it easier to do on your phone.
Zoom out: San Diego's efforts aren't alone. Citizen groups around the country are creating their own video and paper trails of police interactions, Mary Fan, a professor at the University of Washington School of Law, told Axios.
- "It equalizes the imbalance in power when it comes to 'police said, civilians said' disputes," she said. "There's power in numbers, power in the aggregation of data and recordings in terms of detecting patterns and practices, and potentially offering a stronger body of proof."
As Pillars started following reports made to the app, they found through public records requests that some of the interactions weren't being escalated to the Commission on Police Practices, the independent community oversight body for the San Diego Police Department.
- Citizen complaints about things like excessive force, discrimination, slurs and search-and-seizure violations are investigated by SDPD Internal Affairs, which gives a formal finding of "sustained," "not sustained," "exonerated" or "unfounded."
- Those investigations are supposed to be forwarded to the CPP for review.
- But 67% of citizen complaints in 2025 were labeled as "miscellaneous," which under current police policy means the CPP doesn't review them, a police spokesperson told KPBS this year.
"The department recognizes the important role complaint investigations play in accountability and maintaining public trust, and approaches that process with the seriousness it deserves," police spokesperson Ashley Nicholes told Axios in a statement.
The big picture: A community logging system helps Aziz track what's happening and advocate for people who feel wronged by police, she said.
- Pillars is also hosting regular training for the community on how to manage police interactions and use the Cop Stop app.
- "If you make a complaint, but then nothing happens, people feel lost," she said.