"Can Body Cameras 'Civilize' Police Encounters?"

[applegrove]

Can Body Cameras 'Civilize' Police Encounters?
by NPR Staff

http://www.northcountrypublicradio.org/news/npr/345784091/can-body-cameras-civilize-police-encounters

"SNIP....................



On the promising "Rialto study"

There was a really remarkable drop in complaints against officers who were wearing cameras. We're talking on the order of 88 or 90 percent. That is truly remarkable. Officer use of force also dropped. ... So, a lot of people have been talking about those findings and suggesting that when officers wear cameras, it changes the dynamics of the encounter. The term I use is, it has a 'civilizing effect.' That is, officers are less likely to engage in rude or inappropriate behavior, and citizens are less likely to be aggressive and resistant.

On potential downsides of body-worn cameras

Clearly, there are times when citizens have an expectation of privacy that could potentially be violated by a police officer's use of a body-worn camera — the interview of a child, the interview of a sexual assault victim, for example. ... Perhaps a police officer is talking to a confidential informant or someone else trying to get intelligence on criminal activity. When that encounter is recorded, it becomes, in many places, a public document that can be requested by citizens, by press and certainly by prosecutors.

It's clear that police officers and police unions have not universally embraced this technology. They have concerns about when cameras will be on and off, when supervisors can go and review footage. And then, perhaps most importantly, how are you going to store the tremendous amount of video data that's generated by officers wearing these cameras?




.......................SNIP"

[Purveyor]

1. I didn't realize that the officer has the option of turning the camera off and

on at will until watching a local newscast on the topic.

So I vote 'no'.

[Kelvin Mace]

2. The Garner murder just demonstrated

that the police will execute people on camera and get away with it.

[99th_Monkey]

3. It's better than nothing

but I'd make sure they couldn't "accidentally" turn them OFF
while they are murdering citizens.

[helpmetohelpyou]

4. They won't solve a damn thing

It's a mindset that has to be changed

[951-Riverside]

5. Nope, its a bunch of bullshit to make the Taser corp even richer

And the unintended consequences is people will be less inclined to interact and talk to cops because of the camera in their face and cops are going to become much colder and robotic out of fear that their bosses could use any and every single thing they say from archived footage as leverage to kick them off the force if they don't go along with the program (usually the bosses are the most corrupt and vicious).

OTOH when a cop is doing something really bad they'll just not turn on the camera, obscure the camera or make sure the battery doesn't get charged like Mary Hawk's killer did at Albuquerque PD or smash the recording device like Officer Vince Mater did in Fullerton. Criminals will always beat whatever system in place.

Body cameras are not an end all solution when it comes to police brutality. If the Eric Garner and Kelly Thomas murders didnt wake people up I don't know what will.

The only way we're going to realistically fix this is by identifying cops with anger and other psychological issues and remove them and also do a better job screening potential hires.

If you have some guy on the force laughing about busting heads, remove him immediately.

All the "training" and "body cameras" in the world won't stop these psychos from killing, you have to remove them from law enforcement completely.