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Are body cameras a good idea?
Est Quod Est ^ | 11/25/2014 | Pauli

Posted on 11/26/2014 7:58:10 AM PST by Pauli67

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To: ctdonath2

Cameras will compel the police to stick with ‘safe’ actions makes a great argument in favor of police cameras, IMO.


21 posted on 11/26/2014 8:19:05 AM PST by skeeter
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To: ctdonath2

Not to mention turining it off when going to the bathroom. . .or forgetting to turn it off. . .


22 posted on 11/26/2014 8:19:41 AM PST by Hulka
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To: pepsionice

It also protects the officers. The Fergusson thing might have been cleared up early. However, the democrats would have found another case to campaign on.


23 posted on 11/26/2014 8:20:00 AM PST by FreeAtlanta (Liberty or Big Government - you can't have both.)
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To: Pauli67
It might just prevent people from making outrageous claims, knowing they can be quickly disproved.
The only problem I have is that there will be extra suspicion cast on the cop whenever the camera malfunctions.

24 posted on 11/26/2014 8:20:12 AM PST by BitWielder1 (Corporate Profits are better than Government Waste)
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To: Pauli67
I have a great idea!

Let's just automatically convict any white person of whatever crime we wish if there is no video evidence to prove otherwise!

WINNING!!!

25 posted on 11/26/2014 8:22:07 AM PST by E. Pluribus Unum (Any energy source that requires a subsidy is, by definition, "unsustainable.")
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To: Pauli67

Being a cop will be miserable with this. The 90% of the time they are in the car patrolling with nothing going on...no idle chit chat with their partner without it being on record. No discussing what they might do on the weekend. Miserable.

If there is a way to activate it easily when it matters, I might be more in line with this. I cant imagine any willing person would want their entire day recorded. Ugh.


26 posted on 11/26/2014 8:22:33 AM PST by ilgipper
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To: ilgipper

They can still have idle chit chat. They’ll just want to make sure it doesn’t include certain words. Plenty of folks have their entire work day recorded in various ways, and most of them don’t get to shoot people.


27 posted on 11/26/2014 8:24:43 AM PST by discostu (YAHTZEE!)
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To: FreeAtlanta

If the Ferguson cop had body cam....the parents would have sat there on day three after the episode, and been allowed to view the video. Their statement then? “What the heck was that kid smoking? He’s all doped up.”

I realize seventy percent of cops out there are against body cam, but it would have saved a lot of hassle in this case.


28 posted on 11/26/2014 8:24:47 AM PST by pepsionice
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To: ctdonath2

So your saying they will have some “un intended consequences”!

I agree.

I’m still for them but I agree with you.


29 posted on 11/26/2014 8:34:50 AM PST by Cen-Tejas (it's the debt bomb stupid)
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To: Pauli67

Camera with sound recording, ideally uploading in real-time to a repository controlled by the judiciary of the state: It protects LEOs from false accusations of misconduct and helps suppress actual police misconduct.


30 posted on 11/26/2014 8:50:50 AM PST by The_Reader_David (And when they behead your own people in the wars which are to come, then you will know...)
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To: Pauli67

As long as a LEO can end/wreck your life with a canned accusation, they need cameras. Feels like we are dancing around the issue.

How effective would unarmed LEO’s be?


31 posted on 11/26/2014 9:06:27 AM PST by TauntedTiger (On the outside looking in!)
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To: skeeter

“Cameras will compel the police to stick with ‘safe’ actions makes a great argument in favor of police cameras, IMO.”

The word “safe” meaning from the cop’s perspective, not the public’s.
Armed robbery in progress? domestic disturbance? anything for which direct police involvement may very well result in someone being harmed - and the video scrutinized? police will fast learn to show up at the scene just a little later, in hopes that the conflict will be over with and all he need do is clean up the mess. This does NOT work in favor of the population at large.

Most of what cops do IS legitimate & desirable. Hard to do a good job policing when every thug & jerk on the street KNOWS there’s a camera and it can be leveraged to the perpetrator’s advantage. Hard to do a good job when the pay is marginal and the risks of disciplinary action for minor accidental transactions grows by orders of magnitude.

Yeah, cops need to not cross the line. Be careful about pushing that line too close to them; they may find safer employment elsewhere.


32 posted on 11/26/2014 9:09:38 AM PST by ctdonath2 (You know what, just do it.)
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To: ctdonath2

Poor pigs can’t handle surveillance but the rest of us can? We need to ask better of our officers and raise the bar, not lower it. This is an opportunity to watch the watchers and I welcome it. Then we give all agents of the state cams to wear at all times. Let the sunlight in and watch the roaches and vermin scatter. No privacy for state agents.... None...ever. Record their every public move action and word. Let them be prisoners of their own leadership in a world they create.


33 posted on 11/26/2014 9:16:44 AM PST by drunknsage
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To: ctdonath2

Well, where I live don’t try to record a cop with your 24/7/365 body cam.


34 posted on 11/26/2014 9:28:21 AM PST by TalBlack (Evil doesn't have a day job.)
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To: ilgipper
Being a cop will be miserable with this. The 90% of the time they are in the car patrolling with nothing going on...no idle chit chat with their partner without it being on record. No discussing what they might do on the weekend. Miserable.

I'm sorry, but so what? Millions of Americans work in jobs where idle chit-chat will get them fired. Let the cops do that off the clock if what they have to say is so offensive that they don't want it recorded.

35 posted on 11/26/2014 9:32:05 AM PST by MeganC (It took Democrats four hours to deport Elian Gonzalez)
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To: drunknsage

Then don’t put cameras on the cops (at least not yet), put ‘em on legislators.


36 posted on 11/26/2014 9:36:14 AM PST by ctdonath2 (You know what, just do it.)
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To: Pauli67

Check out this footage from a security guard that was wearing one......TIMBER!

(Explicit language warning.)

http://youtu.be/gWGS7G-63MI


37 posted on 11/26/2014 10:39:20 AM PST by MagnoliaB
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To: CygnusXI

I believe the Brown shooting in on video. You know out of all those witnesses at least a few of them had obamaphones and would have started taping at the first sound of gunfire.


38 posted on 11/26/2014 10:46:42 AM PST by VerySadAmerican
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To: Pauli67

As the cost curve continues to fall, cameras will be everywhere including on cops. But it won’t make situations like Ferguson any better. By the time the grand jury was finished everyone new the facts. But it did not matter. The riot had nothing to do with the facts.


39 posted on 11/26/2014 1:55:23 PM PST by Poison Pill
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To: CountryClassSF
Sure, but what’s to stop either a corrupt officer or a bystander/suspect from destroying the camera?

Streaming upload? You can stop any more footage from being produced, but what's been taken isn't in the camera anymore.

40 posted on 11/27/2014 4:35:58 AM PST by Sherman Logan
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