I had the great pleasure of meeting some of the teams involved in CDI’s Apps for Good work in south London this evening. The highlight for me, and what made me ‘stop and stare’, was an application that seeks to improve the experiences of those subject to police ‘stop and search’ activities. It’s called, conveniently: Stop&Search.

It has obvious connections and synergies with the work of Sarah and Lauren at MyPolice and the NPIA (National Policing Improvement Agency). They can both expect contact from Greg and Aaron and the rest of the team in the weeks ahead!

The application also reminded me of the gaps and issues explored at the recent Authority 2.0 conference in Birmingham, where interest was expressed in the development of a “stop and search”-style app for the benefit of photographers and police officers alike.

From Viscero’s perspective it is yet another demonstration of how innovative ideas can be turned into a reality, to help improve the quality and effectiveness of public services and the criminal justice system in particular.

Congratulations must go to the team for their great work so far, supported and encouraged by their project mentor, Jeff Gilfelt (author of ASBOrometer), and CDI.

We look forward to keeping in touch with them – and helping if we can – over the journey ahead. I should also add that the other applications previewed/pitched this evening had real merit (StudioPhly and StudentVoice) and it will be great to see how these evolve and grow into live Android applications.