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Chicago Police Hid Mics, Destroyed Dashcams to Block Audio, Records Show

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Re: Chicago Police Hid Mics, Destroyed Dashcams to Block Audio, Records Show

#91
post #80
post #74

Let's see.. in the 20 odd years here in Chicago, the sum of my police interactions are: Hit by a white shirt (supervisor) who came out of an alley on clark st while in a bike lane - somehow my fault, detained. Hit on foot, by a car with no lights on in a residential neighborhood while crossing at a crosswalk - somehow my fault for being outside while there was "a suspect being hunted" Watching officers on foot in 7-1…

Unfortunately, where to move? The situation is like that all over the USA. The increasing militarization of the police in the past 20 years (one thing about being "old" is you can see these things happen before your eyes) have produced a very bad scene. I spent a couple years in Chile. They cops there walk around with machine guns (they're called "carabineros") but are professional, uncorrupt and trustworthy. The dif…

Honestly, if I have to deal with corruption, and all the other stuff, I'll at least have nice weather with it at this point. Central coast California, Boulder, CO, etc.

Re: Chicago Police Hid Mics, Destroyed Dashcams to Block Audio, Records Show

#92
post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are many folks who would love to become commercial pilots.

...on the other hand, the cockpit voice recorders a) only record a loop of a few hours, so after an intercontinental flight they will have overwritten everything on the first half of the flight and b) there's a button to erase them. https://www.google.de/search?q=a320+cockpit+voice+recorder+p...

Apparently the button erases tape when pushed for two seconds, provided the airplane is on the ground and the parking brake handle is on.

http://www.a320homecockpit.de/downloads/a320flightdeckdocume...

Re: Chicago Police Hid Mics, Destroyed Dashcams to Block Audio, Records Show

#94
post #8

Until police are jailed for this, nothing will improve. What's the US equivalent of the Independent Police Complaints Commission?

The curious thing is that police-forces are paid for by state and local taxes. Why is no one advocating cutting their funding until come into compliance with certain higher standards?

Re: Chicago Police Hid Mics, Destroyed Dashcams to Block Audio, Records Show

#95
post #90

Is anyone really surprised with this? These things have to be made tamper-evident, otherwise this is going to happen.

It seems that this is a cultural problem and not a technological one. If the entire police force is against the idea of recording, how will tamper-proofing make a difference (if the people reviewing the videos are also complicit?)

Re: Chicago Police Hid Mics, Destroyed Dashcams to Block Audio, Records Show

#96
post #8

Until police are jailed for this, nothing will improve. What's the US equivalent of the Independent Police Complaints Commission?

As I argued elsewhere here, I believe a stronger incentive would be to come after pay and pensions for police units whose officers have cost the municipality millions in lawsuits. Instead of friends and coworkers trying to protect each other for abuses of power, they will instead take on the role of protecting their families' livelihood. You would be less likely to abuse your authority if your entire department and t…

While this might provide incentive to comply, making individual occurrences more rare, I think it would also provide greater incentive to cover up abuse once it has already occurred.

Re: Chicago Police Hid Mics, Destroyed Dashcams to Block Audio, Records Show

#98
post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Has this been proposed at all? Is there anything weird about american policing/law that would mean a national, federal agency wouldn't be able to take on this role?

It would be difficult (maybe impossible?) to do given the US's Federal system of dividing powers between State governments and the National government. The Federal Department of Justice investigates, but the only power they have is to sue local police departments in court and make them agree to stop their unlawful behaviour.

Local police are not immune to federal law. They do have some protections, but many local cops are in federal prison.

Re: Chicago Police Hid Mics, Destroyed Dashcams to Block Audio, Records Show

#99
This has been the rebuttal every time the argument "we just need bodycams on police" comes up in the latest thread about police indiscriminately raping or abusing women/shooting black men in the street like hunters shooting deer/pepper spraying protesters at point blank range for having the audacity to stage a sit-in.

Body cams won't magically make police accountable or less corrupt. Power corrupts. The only solution is to take power away from police.

Re: Chicago Police Hid Mics, Destroyed Dashcams to Block Audio, Records Show

#100
post #21

Though I agree that this behavior is reprehensible and probably criminal, the comments here seem to miss at least some of the human dynamic here. I can't hardly imagine that most people posting here would ever consider a job where literally every word or sound that came out of their mouth during their entire working life was recorded, and likely subject to public disclosure. Saying that this is what cops signed up fo…

I can't hardly imagine that most people posting here would ever consider a job where literally every word or sound that came out of their mouth during their entire working life was recorded

I started out doing phone tech support. I doubt I am the only one.

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