Over the past year, what was already clear to millions of Americans has become increasingly hard to deny. Namely, that some Americans will have vastly different experiences during encounters with the police than others.
Because while many people will simply treat the act of being pulled over as a potentially expensive inconvenience, others have every reason in the world to believe that it could escalate into a life-or-death situation.
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But even if that doesn’t seem to be a likely concern for you, you may still find a reason to make use of one shortcut that one person developed for the iPhone two years ago.
Because even if it doesn’t help you protect your life, it can at least make a record of your version of a police encounter.
Near the end of 2018, Apple released its iOS 12 system and included a feature known as Shortcuts with it.
As Macworld reported , this feature was somewhat easy to ignore at the time due to the limited gallery of functions Apple included at the time.
Still, it didn’t take long for third-party developers to come up with some seriously useful ways to automate certain processes in your phone using this app.
And by January of 2019, Reddit user RobertAPetersen used this app to create the Police or “I’m being pulled over” shortcut.
As he posted on the platform’s community dedicated to the Shortcuts app, this shortcut paused any music and turned on the phone’s do not disturb feature while also sending a message to contacts of your choosing telling them what’s happening and where you are.
It also uses your choice of camera to start recording as soon as you use this shortcut so you have a record of the encounter. It also gives you the option to send copies of the video to your chosen contacts and to upload the file elsewhere.
But while it can be as easy as saying “Hey Siri, I’m being pulled over” when it works, it requires some substantial setup to make that possible.
RobertAPetersen has updated his Shortcut to work in iOS 14, but you’ll obviously need to have the app on your phone first.
If you do, you’ll see it in your phone’s Settings screen once you scroll down enough. Click on this option to start editing what it can do.
Once you go into the app’s settings, you’ll notice an option to “allow untrusted shortcuts.”
Despite how it sounds, you’ll want to make sure this is on since the police shortcut wasn’t made by Apple themselves.
According to Business Insider , you may need to create and run a “trusted” shortcut at least once before your phone will let you do this. You could have it set an alarm or something.
Once you get past the warning about using untrusted shortcuts, you’ll want to open the Safari browser on your phone.
And yes, specifically Safari because the Shortcut reportedly doesn’t work if you download it using Chrome.
Once have opened the browser, follow this link and your phone should open Shortcuts. If you scroll to the bottom of the resulting pop-up, you should get an option to “Add untrusted shortcut.”
Do that.
From there, you should be able to choose which of your contacts to send your location to in the event that you get pulled over.
According to Business Insider, you should be able to select multiple contacts for this purpose if desired. You will likely also be prompted to select which contacts to send a copy of the resulting video to.
Once you’re satisfied, click “done.”
Unfortunately, this doesn’t actually mean we’re quite finished yet.
Because once the desired contacts are configured, you should go to your “all shortcuts” tab and tap the three dots next to the one that says “I’m getting pulled over.”
Once in there, you’ll need to scroll down to the “location, “messages, “camera,” and “photo” sections and allow Shortcuts to have access to them. For the Locations option, you’ll likely need to select “allow while using app” after clicking “allow access.”
If the other three don’t provide this specific option, you’ll find yourself clicking “OK” after you select “allow access.” In the case of the Camera option, you will also have the opportunity to choose between the front and back cameras.
Finally, the scripting tab in this shortcut’s settings should give you a menu of options when it comes to uploading the video.
As Business Insider outlined, you should be presented with the following options: iCloud Drive, Dropbox, or “do not upload.”
With that taken care of, the shortcut is now ready to use and depending on your settings, you can either use your home button or say “Hey Siri” to summon her, at which point you can say “I’m being pulled over” when the situation arises.
Good luck and be safe!
h/t: Business Insider , Reddit | RobertAPetersen
