Reimagining Police Precincts & Prisons

I am seeking collaborators and funding to build an augmented reality microsite phone application that replaces existing prison and police station facade signage with organizations and agencies that improve the quality of life for marginalized people and the community. This site will serve as a directory of links to those entities.

In recent years, calls for defunding the police and abolishing prisons have intensified, becoming more pronounced in public discourse. What would this look like? Just as smartphones have allowed us to document and disseminate videos of police brutality and murder, we hope to utilize these devices to visualize the abstract concepts of prison abolition and police divestment. Studies show that increasing police funding does not significantly relate to a decrease in crime. Similarly, it has been proven that crime rates drop when communities invest in affordable housing, employment, educational opportunities, recreation, and arts programs. The solution is to reallocate or redirect funding to other government agencies funded by the local municipalities and non-government organizations. This will reduce police violence and crime, making communities safer through prevention and investment in civic enrichment.

We will crowdsource geotagged photographs of police stations and prisons across the United States through a vigorous social media campaign and activist outreach. We will upload them to a map on our site. Next, we will design digital signage to mask the existing signage of each location. Nearby bus stop advertisements will be purchased to instruct passersby to download the app. Users will then share screenshots of the digitally altered precincts and prisons to social media, search engines, and our website.