Inspiration
Victims of bullying, domestic abuse, and racism feel as if their voices are silenced through the current legal system. Various methods of reporting incidents undergo a strenuous routine that leaves the victim feeling silenced. Reported incidents of bullying, racial discrimination, and domestic violence have the possibility of being drowned out by the local schools, workplaces, and the local police force. Using the SpeakUp application will give the victims and survivors of various incidents a platform to speak their truth and raise awareness of issues within the community as well.
What it does
SpeakUp is designed to be accessible from any device anywhere in the nation. This platform uses an independent database system to record all reports of incidents and flag particular incidents. The database collects the number of times an incident has been filed against a specific person. If there is a buildup of incidents reported the database is triggered and will send a notification to the local resources regarding the accumulation of incident reports. If an incident is deemed critical by the monitor of the database they flag the incident and send a notification to resources in the local area regarding the specific incident. SpeakUp logs the victim/survivors' name, location, description of the incident, and when the incident occurred. This information (except the victim/survivor's name) is provided to the public on the website.
How SpeakUp was built
Database
The database is built with MongoDB Atlas on Google Cloud, and served by Python on Amazon Web Services.
Incident Reporting System
The hardware interface is built with the database using an LCD screen, switches, potentiometer, buttons, and the brain is a particle photon developed using a custom C++
SpeakUp App
Flutter is the main framework for the app, and dart is the language used. Also, android studio is used to emulate a phone with the screen recorder.
Challenges
Credibility
Maintaining credibility for this project was challenging. Utilizing the public voice, the incidents reported to SpeakUp will be able to be tracked and reviewed by the public. Also, there will be a person who monitors and reads all reports of incidents to determine if the incident should be flagged and to track the legitimacy of the victim/survivor.
Technical challenges
Learning to use Flutter/Dart, a language that is relatively new and lacks online help.
Sending form responses via HTTPS to the mongoDB database from the forms created in Flutter as there wasn't much documentation/help online as to how achieve this.
Attempting to have a three-way link between the forms created in Flutter , the mongoDB database and the Photon IOT device.
What we learned
Using Flutter to create responsive cross-platform applications
Connecting Python with MongoDB database and attempting to GET/POST requests
Learned how to integrate the Photon IOT, display text, use the controls, add buttons
Application of better teamwork skills
Working with multiple frameworks
Why SpeakUp is necessary
The silenced victims/survivors of reported crimes and incidents will gain back their voice with the use of SpeakUp. SpeakUp will help accumulate and report data based on user-reported incidents. There is an abundance of crimes that are reported, but a minuscule amount of the reports are actually logged within the databases run by law enforcement. Currently, there is a crisis impacting the Indigenous people of this nation, the MMIW (Murdered and Missing Indigenous Women.) There are thousands of reported murdered and missing Indigenous women across this country mainly located on reservations. Furthermore, very few of the reports actually make it into the databases. For example, in 2016, there were 5,712 reported cases regarding the MMIW crisis, but only two percent of the reports were logged in the database run by the US Department of Justice’s federal missing person database (Lucchesi and Echo-Hawk 2). Additionally, there is an alarming amount of domestic violence reports related to a higher socioeconomic status in married couples. A study conducted in 2016, regarding the relationship between higher incomes and domestic violence, showed a positive correlation with each other (Farmer and Tiefenthaler 1858). Lastly, there is consistency towards low-income areas and a higher than average crime rate. A study conducted in 2017 concluded that areas with higher income inequality are subject to more crime. Thus, supporting the notion that areas with low income are more vulnerable to crime than areas with a higher income rate (Hip and Kubrin 148). This research justifies the need for SpeakUp in both low and high-income areas, as well as rural areas with little to none federal action.
Sources Cited
Farmer, Amy, and Jill Tiefenthaler. “An Economic Analysis of Domestic Violence.” Review of Social Economy, vol. 55, no. 3, 1997, pp. 337–358. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/29769903. Accessed 23 Feb. 2020.
John R. Hipp, and Charis E. Kubrin. “From Bad to Worse: How Changing Inequality in Nearby Areas Impacts Local Crime.” RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences, vol. 3, no. 2, 2017, pp. 129–151. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/10.7758/rsf.2017.3.2.06. Accessed 23 Feb. 2020.
Lucchesi, Annita, and Abigail Echo-Hawk. Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls. Urban Indian Health Institute, 2016, pp. 1–32, Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.
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