Turns Out Some Police Like Being Filmed While On Duty
from the keeps-them-safer dept
Just a couple months ago, we wrote about how police were complaining that allowing people to film them in public created chilling effects on how they behaved. Separately, we've noted a variety of recent incidents in which police took action against those who filmed them in public.Thankfully, not all police feel that way. Bryce writes in to let us know about how a growing number of police forces are putting personal cameras on every officer's uniform, and that the officers feel safer knowing they'll be filmed:
"It feels uncomfortable when I don't have it," Nguyen said of the video camera that is smaller than a smartphone and is worn on his chest. "You can never be too safe."Of course, this is just an extension of grill cameras that many police cars have to record traffic stops. But a personal camera definitely goes further. Others will probably point out that this is different in that the police retain these versions, and don't make them public (unless they want to). And that's definitely true. It's certainly not entirely the same. But, it does serve as at least a partial counterpoint to the idea that police are entirely against being filmed, and that it will somehow create a "chilling effect" for them.
[....] "First and foremost, it protects the officers, it protects the citizens and it can help with an investigation and it shows what happened," said Steve Tidwell, executive director of the FBI National Academy Associates in Quantico, Va. "It can level the playing field, instead of getting just one or two versions. It's all there in living color, so to speak."
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Filed Under: chilling effects, filming, police
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A Good Step
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Yes, its a TV show, it's called "COPS"
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Re: Yes, its a TV show, it's called "COPS"
On topic, I think this is a good thing, how do we implement this nationally?
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Re: Re: Yes, its a TV show, it's called "COPS"
darryl speaking rationally?? I do not think that is possible.
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Re: Yes, its a TV show, it's called "COPS"
groove@techdirt:~$ sudo darryl --reboot 0
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Re: Yes, its a TV show, it's called "COPS"
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Re: Yes, its a TV show, it's called "COPS"
Have you ever noticed that not once in all the years they have had the program "Cops" not ONCE has there been a segment that showed the officers in anything but a positive light.
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Just remember. "The innocent have nothing to fear."
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Re:
Even if the video was edited, so what? People understand when things are taken out of context. Sometimes you don't even need any context, like the murder of Oscar Grant III by BART Officer Johannes Mehserle
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Yeah, their own actions wll do that for them. But alais, the cameras will have failed when that happens, and all footage lost.
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Re: Removing name tags?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=St1-WTc1kow
Protect and serve my ass
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=g20+agent+provocateur
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Cache for reality shows ...
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Re:
Because they obviously don't have access to their trunk.
Oh wait, that does explain what happened in Seattle.
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Thank you.
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Most of the cops are decent officers who don't take bribes, don't beat people, and really care about the communities they work in.
On the other hand, there are quite a few who are the opposite. When you work in a large city district where there is a lot of crime you tend to see too many people as criminals. I hate being on foot in Boston and Cambridge; the cops are definitely not friendly. I even cross the street to avoid passing them on foot.
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Maybe the lapel cams will have a similar method to avoid tampering or accidental/purposeful loss.
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When you control the camera
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Re: When you control the camera
And that would be because citizens are fair and unbiased, while police are not?
Clearly- anyone can use quotes, film, audio, and other information if they choose the context and scope - for any means or agenda they wish to promote.
I'm not 100% behind this. Assuming that all humans have an equal tendency to protect themselves through lying, or omission.. then as a taxpayer, I want more detail about the how, what, and why of this entire idea.
At my last 'uniformed service' job, I wired up my uniforms so that every outerjacket had at least one microphone. This was to protect me from both public & co-workers / supervising uniforms.
In order to protect some integrity if I needed to use them, I'd date each cassette tape, noting if anything 'special' may have happened, and mail them to myself once a week.
Over three years, I only used one - and that was actually to defend a supervisor who was accused of harassment.
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Good'ol boys club = No tranparency = corruption/abuse
I'm sure the video tape will get lost or damaged if police club members deems it desirable. There's still no transparency.
That will only come if it's 'us' video taping 'them' and vice-verse. Otherwise is screams corruption if they have all the video tapes to use against us, and they smash ours on the ground...
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This should be manditory
As to the potential for lost video’s, put a rule in to interpret the missing footage against the folks with camera, in this case the cops.
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Cameras that could catch them doing illegal things, but that they can delete the footage does not create a "chilling effect".
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Why the hate?
There are a few bad cops. But I think the way we treat them turns many of them into mean, resentful cops. And some, one day, will snap and stop caring.
I'm not trying to defend their actions but I am trying point some of the blame on us. If there is a bad cop, WE most likely turned him that way by how we treat officers.
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