NYC official calls for police body cameras - YES !!

A New York City official wants to put body cameras on police officers as a check on misconduct.

Public Advocate Letitia James on Monday called for a pilot program to put body-worn cameras on patrol officers in 15 percent of the city's precincts. She says she would like all patrol officers to eventually be outfitted with the cameras.

James cited last month's death of Eric Garner after he was put in a police chokehold on Staten Island.

Federal Judge Shira Scheindlin ordered some patrol officers to wear the cameras in her 2013 stop-and-frisk ruling.

But Patrolmen's Benevolent Association President Patrick Lynch says his union wants to see evidence of the cameras' effectiveness.

www.foxnews.com...

Yep, I say hold those suckers accountable for every second they are on the job. This should be nationwide. Let's hope it works out in NY that some cop does something stupid while forgetting he's wearing a camera and BAM, it spreads across the country like wildfire. Well, a guy can dream can't he?

It's sad to live in an age where you have to watch the cops as much as you do the crooks. That sounds like a cheesy sci-fi flick from the 80's but it's Reality now folks - this is Not the same world you grew up in.

I'd like to hear from some NY cops or cops anywhere else.. what do you think about this? (assuming your not afraid to post on ats)

a reply to: JohnPhoenix

I agree I also want this in our police force over in the UK.
They are fully accountable to the public and should not have anything to hide.
Plus it would weed out bad practise and bad police.

a reply to: JohnPhoenix

I'm so sick of the cops thinking they are above the law. It seems like every few days I read about another "Accidental" shooting where the only visible consequence is a paid leave.

In the long run it probably wont make much of a difference. Years ago people were calling for the dashcam video's and that hasn't done a whole lot to cut down on police corruption or brutality. The Police Brotherhood will find a way around bodycams.

a reply to: JohnPhoenix

I suppose if they (investigation team) have access to said cameras it would make it a little easier for them to cgi/edit any videos called into a review panel proving something one way or the other...like pentagon footage.

"Well, in my video, it shows the perp reaching into the air grasping at the eyes of the arresting officer".

"Yes, he is scratching at the officers eyes, because the officer is choking him out".

We won't see the officers hands gripping the 'perps' throat in a video lending the officer's perspective...

Audio tracks?

Easier to manipulate false positives.

a reply to: TheMainEvent

I've seen the true side of a bad cop up close and personal. My sister married a cop and after they divorced he keeps taking her to court trying to get the kids taken away from her and has tried to kill her by running her over. This is a family saga that has raged for the past 15 years. He's no longer a cop and in fact he gets in trouble with the cops now but he's slick, he still has friends on the force and he's good at manipulating people.

While he was on patrol I have seen him do some shady things. Cops love their toys and the power it gives them.

Some people just have no business being a cop. It's not the cop that is the problem, thats just a job it's the person thats the problem, like this twisted worthless sack of crap that was my ex brother in law.

a reply to: loveguy

You raise a good question. I don't know who's going to be in charge of this huge amount of data or who will have access to it. This brings up a host of other issues.

I shall endeavor to answer the query.

originally posted by: JohnPhoenix
a reply to: loveguy

You raise a good question. I don't know who's going to be in charge of this huge amount of data or who will have access to it. This brings up a host of other issues.

I shall endeavor to answer the query.

'Gravity of the truth' shows that crap is what will flow from the top...if one doesn't want to be crapped on, one should not stand in the shadow of back-scratchers.

a reply to: JohnPhoenix

Yeah, this is a good idea. They've started doing it here in the UK too. It should be a standard everywhere, simply because it makes unlawful police activity harder to do.

Thing is though, you'll still get that guy who'll do something bad and then break his own camera and claim it was conveniently destroyed in the scuffle or whatever - where he had to shoot the other guy to survive lol.

The way to get around that is ensure every camera provides a live, wireless feed.

That would be crazily expensive to achieve and would require multiple fields to correlaborate on a massive project, which would effectively change the dynamic of the police force forever.

THEY would then have a big brother. Damn, if you made those live streams completely free for public access, I wonder how drastically our dynamic with the police would change.

a reply to: JohnPhoenix

Good start but forget the cops I want them on our politicians along with mics.

This needs to happen, Im trying to have faith but why is the Patrolmans Benevolent Association resisting?

a reply to: JohnPhoenix

Maybe we should just make everyone wear a camera then when somebody does something stupid while we are wearing cameras then "boom" everybody knows and we can be prosecuted easier.

Just think, If everybody wore their own camera we would have to abolish the 5th Amendment.

a reply to: JohnPhoenix
Why stop with body cameras?
Why not make it mandatory that criminal cops are put into general population in jail when they are convicted?
THAT would probably be the only REAL effective means of getting them under control.
I look at it like this-if they are "tough enough" to beat to death or shoot and kill innocent citizens-then they are "tough enough" to handle jail with ZERO special treatment,

a reply to: JohnPhoenix

The Police here in Bradford (UK) already wear body camera's. The problem with them is that the cameras have to be physically turned on by the individual officer at the required time. If they really don't want something recording they could flick a switch and its turned off. Same goes for not turning it on at all, simply saying 'I forgot' as an excuse, nothing can be done about that.

Body cameras are pointless unless they are recording all the time, with no option to stop it.

The Police use cameras in the UK to gather evidence, rather than spying on officers. From what I read, the Police in the US are far more aggressive and quick to dish out a beating than they are in the UK.

originally posted by: DazDaKing

The way to get around that is ensure every camera provides a live, wireless feed.

That would be crazily expensive to achieve and would require multiple fields to correlaborate on a massive project, which would effectively change the dynamic of the police force forever.

THEY would then have a big brother. Damn, if you made those live streams completely free for public access, I wonder how drastically our dynamic with the police would change.

That idea is not as expensive as it seems!
As you probably know, in the uk BT's routers offer wifi to anyone within range that has a valid password. With cooperation from BT those routers could accept connection from any policeman within range. From there it could be streamed live to any destination.
BT's routers are so common its difficult to find an area not covered. This is easy to check just by using a mobile phone, switch on the wifi and let it search, its almost certain that bt wifi will be found.

"If your not doing anything wrong then why worry about cameras"
I wonder if the police would repeat that if its THEM the cameras are watching?

a reply to: VoidHawk

But what about when officers are in the car with their colleagues having a private conversation? Would it be really fair to record all private conversations, I know I wouldn't want my bosses at work listening in to what me and my colleagues/friends are talking about in private.

Just playing devils advocate!

originally posted by: yorkshireman
a reply to: VoidHawk

But what about when officers are in the car with their colleagues having a private conversation? Would it be really fair to record all private conversations, I know I wouldn't want my bosses at work listening in to what me and my colleagues/friends are talking about in private.

Just playing devils advocate!

Hi yorkshireman
Good point!
A shop near to me has all its employees wearing a device that looks like a faceless wrist watch, in fact it can listen to them and track their movements within the shop. I find that to be quite disturbing, so I do see the point your making.
However, I dont view the police as mere employee's, they are (supposedly) there to protect and serve the public, and they are given powers and privileges to enable them to perform their duties.
Unfortunately we are seeing more and more policeman abusing those powers, and it needs to stop!

If good policeman reported on the bad policeman, then I'd agree with you about it being unfair that they should wear cameras, but that isn't whats happening, the good remain silent and the bad are getting worse.

People are being killed by them, people are being beaten by them, some of them even rape people! Should people have to suffer all this just because the police dont like wearing a camera?

They should learn to police their own, or expect to be fitted with cameras imo.


ETA: Kinda missed your point about while being in the car. Simple remedy. Tiny rfid chip (cost pence) fitted in the camera so that camera is deactivated while they're in the car.

a reply to: JohnPhoenix

Spying on the PO or spying on us?

That is the question.

Wouldn't surprise me to have even more Surveillance.

This is a good thing and can only get better.
Wear a badge, wear a camera.
Don't follow the rules, lose your job and or worse.
Cops were originally supposed to be cops, never were they intended to be judge, jury and executioner.

a reply to: JohnPhoenix

The way things have been going every cop should be forced to wear one of these cameras.

But Patrolmen's Benevolent Association President Patrick Lynch says his union wants to see evidence of the cameras' effectiveness.

OK then, in light of this request I created a customized super-duper YouTube search parameter to help out.

"police body cameras showing brutality"

Got over a quarter million video hits so I'm sure we can find something.

Police already have dashboard cams that record in-car video. Having record buttons seems fair, since if they don't have the device recording when they visit a house, that will count against them in court. Some police officers have actually gone to the trouble of buying their own recorders. But there is only a recording time of 2.5 hours or 32GB..

us.revealmedia.com...

They would really need something like 256GB, and upload when being recharged through a car USB. Then all wireless transmissions would have to be securely encrypted as they would be recording other peoples homes and businesses.