Lax oversight allows Chicago police to avoid turning on their body cams
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Lax oversight allows Chicago police to avoid turning on their body cams
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Re: Lax oversight allows Chicago police to avoid turning on their body cams
#2Shocker.
edit Will add context. Police oversight will always be a totally unbalanced fight for power. Police obviously do not want their behavior analyzed because of the obvious and frequent abuse of that power. For some reason, lots of america believes that being a police officer should come with total unchecked power amongst their communities - even so much as scrutinizing their use of excessive force has become a politicized nightmare.
So no, it is in no way surprising that police oversight is garbage and continues to give police easy outs.
Re: Lax oversight allows Chicago police to avoid turning on their body cams
#3The police in america generally have too much responsibility and consume too many of our resources. When you combine that with the privileged status that comes with law enforcement you get a real mess.
The problem is, as in so many cases, fundamentally about power. Until police have less power (that is, less funding, fewer numbers, and a smaller scope of responsibilites), i fear these kinds of abuses are almost unavoidable.
Re: Lax oversight allows Chicago police to avoid turning on their body cams
#4With all the smart sensors available today it should be possible to start recording automatically. You unholster or unbuckle your weapon, camera goes live. It's become far too easy to say you forgot to do activate it in the heat of the moment. Even a 20yo car knows when a passenger is or isn't sitting in the seat.
Re: Lax oversight allows Chicago police to avoid turning on their body cams
#5If we really want body cameras to work, there needs to be penalties for nonuse. For example lack of body camera removes qualified immunity protections for the officer(s) in question.
My personal philosophy is that if called to be on a criminal jury, if the case relies on the officer's testimony and there is no camera, I will return a verdict of not guilty under the justification that the state has failed to prove its case.
A couple of hung juries and the powers that be may get the message
Re: Lax oversight allows Chicago police to avoid turning on their body cams
#6If we really want body cameras to work, there needs to be penalties for nonuse. For example lack of body camera removes qualified immunity protections for the officer(s) in question. My personal philosophy is that if called to be on a criminal jury, if the case relies on the officer's testimony and there is no camera, I will return a verdict of not guilty under the justification that the state has failed to prove its…
Juries, historically, uncritically accept unsubstantiated cop testimony at face value.
It’s a huge problem.
Re: Lax oversight allows Chicago police to avoid turning on their body cams
#7Is there a way to remove articles about the American police force from HN?
Yes we know they’re bad/unethical and a problem for Americans. But is this really something that “gratifies one’s intellectual curiosity”?
Isn’t it just flamebait now?
Re: Lax oversight allows Chicago police to avoid turning on their body cams
#8If we really want body cameras to work, there needs to be penalties for nonuse. For example lack of body camera removes qualified immunity protections for the officer(s) in question. My personal philosophy is that if called to be on a criminal jury, if the case relies on the officer's testimony and there is no camera, I will return a verdict of not guilty under the justification that the state has failed to prove its…
I will be legitimately shocked if lack of compliance with body cams is what results in stripping qualified immunity after years of so many other reasons where people have died on camera in police custody failed at doing so.
Re: Lax oversight allows Chicago police to avoid turning on their body cams
#9> The cameras are relatively simple to operate. They constantly record everything in front of them, but only save 30 seconds of video at a time. To record an entire incident, the officer must double press the “event” button in the center of the camera.
So non-compliance is the default.
And compliance failure is as easy as an incorrect double-press that fails to start recording. Is there even any feedback that the double-press has registered?
Why not buffer 5 hours by default?
Re: Lax oversight allows Chicago police to avoid turning on their body cams
#10If we really want body cameras to work, there needs to be penalties for nonuse. For example lack of body camera removes qualified immunity protections for the officer(s) in question. My personal philosophy is that if called to be on a criminal jury, if the case relies on the officer's testimony and there is no camera, I will return a verdict of not guilty under the justification that the state has failed to prove its…
What we need is for them to have to carry personally paid malpractice insurance that is tied to their access to qualified immunity.
And if their camera is off they lose their insurance policy. Then no more access to qualified immunity.
Being police is a luxury not a right.