A Step Forward for Law Enforcement, and Even Some on ATS will be Happy!

Hey all. Tonight we had a command meeting at my agency to impliment a new system for us to wear. The system is called VIDMIC and it is a standard radio mic with a new audio/video/capture feature that helps give people a true view of what an officer see's and does.

Company Site:
www.ehsequipment.com...

Anyway, I bring this up because as we all know there is definitly a love/hate relationship between some ATS members and cops, for whatever reason. But the key I wanted to mention here was, my department is 875 officers strong, and when told we would be going to these mic's, EVERYONE was in support. Yes, can you guys believe it, the pigs, nazi's, lying scum, fat lazy, good for nothing cops all agreed it would be a good idea to go to this system. So much for wanting to cover up everything!

These mic's will allow us as law enforcement to show the people exactly what we see. Dash Cam's are fine for traffic stops, but many things we do that get us FALSE COMPLAINTS, FALSE STATEMENTS, FALSE USE OF FORCE COMPLAINTS happen away from the car, inside homes, foot chases, business's, etc... This mic will now cover all those areas and leave us with solid video evidence of what really happened. I look forward to using it and I think the public should be happy about us getting them. (Well, maybe not, there $700 a pop, but hey, its worth it for those who don't trust us...IMO)

Here is a quick example video from VIDMIC! It gives you a view never seen before by people. ***THIS IS A TRAINING VIDEO, NOT REAL***




I wanted to find out what you guys thought of such a tool. I know some of you with pure hate for my profession SHOULD welcome these, but we shall see. Either way, thoughts?

Not sure how I am going to write the required two sentences. I see it as a win win.
No complaints from me. I have heard stories but my experiences haven't been anything but professional. On three or four occasions they went out of their way to cut me a lot of slack.

reply to post by rcwj1975



Ever since i came to ATS, i have learned that photo's and video's are not always what they appear to be. I had no idea that digital images could be manipulated to such an extend that you could not tell the difference between reality and fiction.

I believe it will be a handy tool but i hope it will not be used as evidence for or against anything. That would be really bad IMHO...

Peace

[edit on 5-3-2010 by operation mindcrime]

Good Job! I think these devices could be a huge step forward in transparency if they work well under field conditions. If all the officers are consistent about how exactly the devices are placed on their uniforms... I could still see that in a hasty foot pursuit the bounce factor might be horrendous. Still, I think these would be a valuable addition to my community - both for the credibility and the incredulity.

gj

I have a previous law-enforcement history myself and I think this is just great news. Yes there may be a few cops on many departments that are dirty, but most are not. And you're correct, there are far too many false accusations and complaints. This system should help clear those up.

Hopefully many more departments will get these. Then we'll see how attitudes of people change towards police once it is known they can't easily make abuse accusations anymore.

reply to post by ganjoa


Am i the only paranoid in the house here??

Although i can see the advantages of this system, isn't it just as likely to be a tool to be misused?

Like planting drugs or a gun on somebody who got shot. Try making your case against an officer who almost beat you to death when his CGI video capture clearly shows you holding a CGI gun.

I really have no idea if it is even possible to edit video material in this way but i tend to believe nothing is impossible.

Peace

I think this is a good idea. It will help to show who was in the right and who was in the wrong.

That being said, I think that this will bring up bigger questions of just what is right and what is wrong. It will bring up tough questions about what is and is not abuse. It is going to bring under more scrutiny, 'under what circumstances is X action justified?'


I see this tech as making the job of a LEO easier in some ways and more difficult in others. It will bring the truth about in a much easier fashion.


Also I like the idea that it will make those who are corrupt and wear a badge, think twice before going blatantly over the limit, or breaking the law by planting evidence. Just as it will help to prevent those who have been in contact with LEO's to claim abuse and cause frivolous incidences that hinder the police force, and make it more expensive for the taxpayer.




Dropping an extra $700 per officer for almost any department in one fiscal year is a burden on the taxpayers. It should be phased in so as not to cause any unneeded fiscal harm on the taxpayer.

[edit on 5-3-2010 by sporkmonster]

reply to post by rcwj1975


Hey rcwj1975, I for one appreciate the threads that you have brought to us that show the other side of things..I've posted much dis-content with our current law enforcement practices and have made it pretty obvious where I stand on that position...with that said, I do appreciate your threads here, and the service other *good* cops have given to this country. I say this now in part because..

In light of a beloved ATS member recently passing, (whom I didn't even know, yet was moved strongly by the recent happening) I feel the strong desire to appreciate us all as human beings a little bit more than what is often displayed here on ATS. Good people *do* exsist and that is evident everywhere, including police officers.

Back to the topic at hand..thank you for the thread. The training vid does show this tech could be useful! I wonder if a taser might have been a better option in this case tho??

Edit: s&F btw

[edit on 6-3-2010 by Wookiep]

Great, now we'll have hours of video of cops stuffing donuts, burritos and hotdogs into their pieholes from the first person perspective!

Hey, you knew someone had to make a donut joke out of this.

You know why dash cams don’t work?
Because when an officer wants to break the law, they simply move the suspect to an area where it cannot be picked up by the camera/mic. Same thing will happen with this. They will use them to show their sides of the story, and simply block or shut them off when they don’t want the events to be known.

i think it can prevent alot of abuse. but not all.

theres alto of instances where they can still plant evidence like during a patdown you wouldnt be able to see it from a first person view.

is it worth the 700 a pop? i dunno

honestly i think police in general are a waste of money with the second amendment and all. i mean sure this makes their case better now but its going to be at a price and i already saw it as too expensive.

Classic example:

reply to post by defcon5


You make a good point...I wonder if this new tech will prohibit the act of turning the cam off tho? I guess I can see where it would be a problem if there was a claimed "glitch" in the camera by the officer which is sure to happen...but if it happens regularly then surely people will notice, and the new tech would have to be fixed by populous demand?

[edit on 6-3-2010 by Wookiep]

Too bad attempts at independent video monitoring of the police get so much harassment:

www.youtube.com...

joshwolf.net...

“You’ll be the first one cited and released,” the officer reassured me as I protested my unlawful detention. While I was the first to be led away in handcuffs, this wasn’t the “catch and release” operation the cop had suggested it was. I actually wouldn’t be released until six that evening. It was 10:30AM, and I was just about to take a break from filming and grab something for breakfast. I knew I should’ve eaten before I left, but had wanted to begin filming as early as possible. I attended the protests as a journalist, and had been actively working to stay out of the officers’ way as I filmed the various actions commemorating the five-year anniversary of the war. I don’t pretend to be neutral; I marched down the streets in a state of rage and sadness the day the bombs first dropped, but I was clearly acting as a news gatherer at the time of my arrest. The police didn’t care, and throughout the day several other journalists would find themselves imprisoned for reporting on the day’s dissent.

joshwolf.net...

Josh is the longest jailed journalist in US history for committing journalism November 21st, 2006 NEW! Sign the Free Josh Wolf petition! Josh Wolf, freelance journalist and independent videographer, is currently in “coercive custody” at the Federal Detention Facility in Dublin, California. He is not charged with any crime and is being held under civil contempt. Wolf was incarcerated in July 2006 after resisting a subpoena to testify before a Federal Grand jury and for refusing to turn over his source material for video he shot of a San Francisco protest against the G8 Summit in 2005. His incarceration is virtually unprecedented. As of February 6 he is now the longest imprisoned journalist in U.S. history for failure to comply with a subpoena.

Originally posted by Wookiep
You make a good point...I wonder if this new tech will prohibit the act of turning the cam off though

Of course they will be able to. I mean police officers are human, they have to be afforded some amount of privacy throughout the day (bathroom breaks, eating, etc). If its something that they wear on their chest, they can simply ensure that their tie happens to end up covering the camera lens, or it fell off during the scuffle. There is a way around anything…

reply to post by rcwj1975


I've been working on something like this for the past 5 months. Hopefully they'll tolerate competition. IMHO, it's a good thing for the cops, and the population as a whole. The concern that I have is that the audio and video is sent 'off-site' to an encrypted third party storage where the audio/video can't be so much as viewed without a court order. This would make sure that evidence isn't 'lost'.

Actually, the system as I envision it could be worn by anybody, mounted in a vehicle with data capture (speed, direction, time, etc...), used in real time by commanders for safety, and rescue operations.

At one time I considered all the video surveillance to be a bad thing, but have embraced that the only counter is to have everything, and everybody wired up for their own safety, and protection from those that would alter or change events for their own gain.

I'm sure it's a very cool system, but it's no where near as robust as what it could/should be. At the moment it's better than nothing.

reply to post by SpacePunk

You'd better hurry it up then because Microsoft is right behind you...

SenseCam



Peace

reply to post by operation mindcrime


Yeah this stuff is not to monitor the cops it's to identify potential criminals --

www.l1id.com...

Mobile Identification: Portable and wireless finger, face and iris systems for on-the-spot, field identification.

Originally posted by operation mindcrime
reply to post by ganjoa

 

Am i the only paranoid in the house here??

Although i can see the advantages of this system, isn't it just as likely to be a tool to be misused?

Like planting drugs or a gun on somebody who got shot. Try making your case against an officer who almost beat you to death when his CGI video capture clearly shows you holding a CGI gun.

I really have no idea if it is even possible to edit video material in this way but i tend to believe nothing is impossible.

Peace

You said it yourself. You're far too paranoid. It's the people like you that hold society back from advancing.

I've always thought cop cars should have a camera attached on top of the car that picks up 360 degrees. I've noticed that a dash cam can be blocked if a cop gets in front of it or if like many have said, the cop and suspect get out of camera view.

Anyway, this vidmic is good IMO. Better than having nothing. Maybe this will help weed out the bad cops, especially the ones who have no tack in dealing with people.