MIT Solve

Solution Overview

Solution Name:

REYETS: SOCIAL JUSTICE NETWORK

One-line solution summary:

Empowering civic engagement and safer police interactions through mobile-enabled education, resource sharing, reporting and AI data analysis

Pitch your solution.

Reyets is a mobile smart app paired with an AI powered database. The Reyets app lets people know their rights, document abuse and get help. Incidents reported through the app are fed into the Reyets dashboard that serves as an AI powered analysis and record keeping database. Data is then analyzed and used to support investigations into misconduct, help write better policies and used by public defenders to support witness accounts in court.

Film your elevator pitch.

What specific problem are you solving?

People don’t know their rights, and when they are violated, reporting misconduct is difficult, since each of the over 18,000 police departments has its own unique process of reporting police misconduct. As a result, 95% of people do not report police misconduct. Conversely, research indicates that a lack of public participation is a barrier to true police accountability. While Community-Led Policing (CLP) programs are effective tools to increase public participation, lack of access to resources is a barrier to widespread adoption.

What is your solution?

Reyets is a mobile smart app paired with an AI-powered database. The Reyets app lets people know their rights, document abuse, build easy-to-follow action campaigns and get help. Incidents reported through the app are fed into the Reyets dashboard that serves as an AI-powered analysis and record-keeping database. Data is then analyzed and used to support investigations into misconduct, help write better policies, and used by public defenders to support witness accounts in court.

Who does your solution serve, and in what ways will the solution impact their lives?

Reyets helps black, brown, and immigrant communities. These communities are over-policed, arrested at higher rates, and have access to fewer resources than other communities. For example, black motorists are stopped at over 400% more then white motorist.

Our solution provides help at the hyper-local level by partnering with grass-root organizations and providing know your rights tools, connecting people with resources and organizations.

The result is that instead of feeling helpless people are empowered and less likely to be victims.

Which dimension of the Challenge does your solution most closely address?

Create new public safety systems that ensure racial equity and provide alternatives to harmful technologies such as biased facial recognition.

Explain how the problem you are addressing, the solution you have designed, and the population you are serving align with the Challenge.

The current public safety system relies on a policing system that is ill-equipped to respond to many of black, brown, and immigrant communities' needs. Although 95% of all calls to police are for non-violent issues, an armed officer is sent.

Reyets is helping build an interconnected network of community-led programs. Community-Led Policing is an organizational strategy that allows the community to solve problems, through witnesses, data collection, and reform efforts. A good example of this is a group in Baltimore that came together and uncovered that every 14 days in Maryland, someone is killed by police. Using the data, they compiled on officer-involved deaths they successfully pushed for a host of police reforms at the local, county, and state levels

In what city, town, or region is your solution team headquartered?

Washington D.C., DC, USA

What is your solution’s stage of development?

Pilot: An organization deploying a tested product, service, or business model in at least one community.

Explain why you selected this stage of development for your solution.

We have built our core platform have organically acquired 7,000 users and are in talks to launch pilot programs.

Who is the Team Lead for your solution?

Wa'il Ashshowwaf