The terrible incidents that took the lives of Walter Scott, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, Trayvon Martin, and more have caused many to discuss ways in which these situations can be stopped.
A group of teens hope the creation of their app can be one step in addressing these situations. These three teens are siblings and known as: Ima Christian (16), Asha Christian (15), and Caleb Christian (14). They are the creators of the app known as Five-0.
The three teens developed the app a year ago and since its release it has been downloaded more than 10,000 times. The teens told RIZZARR that they decided to create it after seeing constant media reports on the negative interactions that law enforcements were having with American-Americans around the country. According to the teens, they also had a personal connection with the app since some of their loved ones have also had negative encounters with police officers.
Five-0 app (Photo courtesy of Pinetart)
“We developed the app to give everyone a chance to share their experiences with law enforcement in hopes of reducing negative situations,” Asha told RIZZARR. “We have always talked with our parents about these situations, and they would always encourage us to focus on finding a solution.”
And that solution was Five-0 (its name founded by their mom who loves Hawaii Five-0). It allows citizens to record and store data from every encounter with law enforcement. Users can find out how people in their communities are rating local law enforcements and they can submit reviews as well as share them with everyone. Each officer is rated on a 4.0 scale, like how students are graded by G.PA.
“The idea is to collect data that users can then bring to community activists, the media, and other forms of law enforcement. That way, it’s not just ‘he said, she said,'” Caleb posted on their website.
Since its release, the three teens have taken their love of making apps into a full-fledge mobile application company known as Pinetart, later releasing two additional apps. They have also gained media attention from major news companies around the country included CNN, The Huffington Post, BuzzFeed, Yahoo! News, The Washington Post, Forbes and more.
WATCH CNN NEWS STORY ON THE FIVE-O FOUNDERS
Though the trio says they faced some challenges when developing the Five-0 app, they never gave up on their mission of creating it: “We started developing our ideas on a white board and started thinking of every component that could go into an app,” she said. “We took online tutorials to develop it.”
Though the trio says they faced some challenges when developing the Five-0 app, they never gave up on their mission of creating it. (Photo courtesy of Pinetart, Inc.)
They hope to raise funds to improve the app, and they hope their story inspires other young people throughout the world.
“We really hope to empower young women to go into computer science and young people in general, but we definitely want to empower young girls,” Asha said. “We believe this is the start and definitely not the end. We hope that our story hits home for them and is realistic for them in knowing that they don’t have to be expert coders to build an app. They just have to find problems and try to solve them.
When asked what advice they would give to any person who’s trying to change the world, they say: “Find problems and think of solutions. Collaboration is also important. Try to work with other people who have similar interests. The more people who you have a part of your group, the more help you can get with functionality. Begin with finding a problem and ways you can solve it. And most importantly, make sure to reach out to other people to help you.”
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