I have a relative that recently retired from a rural Georgia police department as a chief of police and he told me an interesting story about his department. It was a small town and they immediately jumped on body cams for the officers and cruisers. He loved them as did most of the officers eventually.
He said he would about once or twice a week have a citizen come in raising hell about an abusive officer he had and wanted them fired and prosecuted. They would then produce a phone video of anywhere from a few seconds to a couple of minutes and he said usually the clip was absolutely damning for the officer involved.
He would then say well we record everything lets go to the IT room and pull up the entire encounter beginning to end and see what happened so we can be sure of what we are dealing with. He said at that point 90% plus of the complainants started backpedaling like they were on a new Pelaton bike running from a pissed off black bear! Well it wasn’t that bad, I don’t think I want to go through with this charge, I need to leave I have an appointment my dog needs a whiskerectomy, trying to get out of there. He then pulls up the entire event and clearly the original video submitted by the citizen was edited to destroy the officer. He would then talk about making false charges and the citizen would take off like a shot.
He really loved the cameras for that reason and others. He said he also noted times when officers would do things not worthy of dismissal but that needed addressed and he could do so either department wide or with the individual officer.
Yes, because when they investigate themselves the results can be trusted. s/
We are just a wide spot in the road but we do have a steady stream of traffic going through because we are on a county road and, in the fall, a steady steam of hunters.
Our elected sheriff was the drive behind getting vest cams for his people and publicly stated it was BECAUSE he had confidence in his officers that he wanted them.
His trust has not been misplaced.
Yes, good point- cameras serve dual purposes- keep the cops honest (which 99+% of them are anyways), and keep the public they encounter honest as well-