There are many rationales for body cameras. Most are along the lines of providing better records of events such as interactions between the police and the public. Reducing use of force is usually not among the official rationales. However, one unofficial rationale is that body cameras may reduce unreported uses of force and again this goes back to the main rationale of providing a better record of police activities.
Study finds police body cameras had no significant impact on use of force
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Re: Study finds police body cameras had no significant impact on use of force
#32Earlier quoted context omitted.
I would say if an officer has their camera off in line of duty, and something happens they should be charged with obstruction of justice.
If I was interviewing you and I told you that if your laptop stopped working during office hours you could be brought up on criminal charges that could include jail time - would you take the job?
More like if your laptop stops working you are obligated to call tech support immediately.
Re: Study finds police body cameras had no significant impact on use of force
#33IMHO it seems that the body cameras are quite frequently "malfunctioning" when they would be needed. edit: some links from quick google search. http://edition.cnn.com/2017/07/19/us/minneapolis-police-shoo... https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/a-cop-fir... https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/after-baton-rouge-shoot...
It's quite possible they are functioning just as often when not needed, and that this only seems malicious because of selection bias.
And guess who does the selection bias on the on/off button.
Re: Study finds police body cameras had no significant impact on use of force
#34Earlier quoted context omitted.
Allowing the police to have total control and oversight was, to me, the point where I knew the police body camera idea wasn't going to fix everything right away. It feels like mostly lip service but it has shown some good splotches here and there. LIke you said, until they are out of the hands of police they are basically useless... Unless buffoon cops forget to turn it on / off depending on the situation.
I would say if an officer has their camera off in line of duty, and something happens they should be charged with obstruction of justice.
Exactly my theory. Make any accusation by citizens against police have more weight over the cops' words in a court of law (they are after all "serving the people", no?), and they will find it in their best interest to keep the camera on at all times.
Re: Study finds police body cameras had no significant impact on use of force
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
In principle, it ought to be possible to ensure an encrypted version of all the video is always uploaded to some governmental servers that the police can not tamper with, where the video can only be accessed under appropriate circumstances by an appropriate authority.
You're abstracting a lot of your argument away. When are "appropriate circumstances?" Who is an "appropriate authority?" Surely not the police department? Or the DA? Those questions are the crux of the issue, not the medium on which the recordings are stored.
> Those questions are the crux of the issue, not the medium on which the recordings are stored.
They are definitely important, but remember that I was replying to a comment that implied the only option was for the video to be made publicly available, and my comment was primarily trying to say that was not the only option.
I'm not sure exactly what the appropriate circumstances/authority are -- not my area of expertise -- but I think ones must exist. I don't know if you're arguing against the idea that there is some appropriate circumstances/authority.
Re: Study finds police body cameras had no significant impact on use of force
#36Earlier quoted context omitted.
Allowing the police to have total control and oversight was, to me, the point where I knew the police body camera idea wasn't going to fix everything right away. It feels like mostly lip service but it has shown some good splotches here and there. LIke you said, until they are out of the hands of police they are basically useless... Unless buffoon cops forget to turn it on / off depending on the situation.
I would say if an officer has their camera off in line of duty, and something happens they should be charged with obstruction of justice.
What if they need to go to the bathroom?
Re: Study finds police body cameras had no significant impact on use of force
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
If I was interviewing you and I told you that if your laptop stopped working during office hours you could be brought up on criminal charges that could include jail time - would you take the job?
More like if your laptop stops working you are obligated to call tech support immediately.
[deleted]
Re: Study finds police body cameras had no significant impact on use of force
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you dream of a Utopian land without police officers, I hear Somalia is gorgeous this time of year.
Per https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_and_dependen... , Somalia has roughly the same number of police officers per capita as Canada, Denmark, Sweden, and South Korea.
I was curious about it, so I looked at the underlying data and fixed the numbers on the wikipedia page based on the latest UN data available. Based on that, the number of police per capita is actually considerably lower.
Re: Study finds police body cameras had no significant impact on use of force
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's quite possible they are functioning just as often when not needed, and that this only seems malicious because of selection bias.
And guess who does the selection bias on the on/off button.
This only matters if you assume malicious intent. I'm not saying it isn't ever there, but let's not pretend it's proven to be statistically significant.