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Exactly. What is the point of NYTimes running this kind of piece, except to court favor with police unions. It only serves to cloud the issue, by encouraging p

Exactly. What is the point of NYTimes running this kind of piece, except to court favor with police unions. It only serves to cloud the issue, by encouraging people to forget that bodycam video and dashcam video are strictly additive evidence. A preponderance of the evidence shows that police will do anything they can to suppress information that makes them accountable. Hence dashcam audio that gets disabled, nearby security camera footage that gets deleted, and so on. Maybe NYTimes is just afraid that they will alienate the police unions if they state the truth: that all law enforcement and the general public alike are protected and constrained by low-cost video recording.

Maxious 11y ago
> Hence dashcam audio that gets disabled "Chicago Police Department officers stashed microphones in their squad car glove boxes. They pulled out batteries. Microphone antennas got busted or went missing. And sometimes, dashcam systems didn’t have any microphones at all" https://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20160127/archer-heights/whats-behind-no-sound-syndrome-on-chicago-police-dashcams https://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20160127/archer-heights/what...
brandonbloom 11y ago
jobu is spot on, but your conclusion doesn't follow. The truth is that police generally favor body cameras because it protects their officers from an incredibly high volume of false or overblown claims. Here's one reference: https://www.policeone.com/police-products/body-cameras/articles/6017774-Survey-Police-officers-want-body-worn-cameras/ https://www.policeone.com/police-products/body-cameras/artic... And to pile on the point made by the link that jobu posted, Rialto, CA had similarly stunning results in their study: http://www.ci.calistoga.ca.us/home/showdocument?id=18839 http://www.ci.calistoga.ca.us/home/showdocument?id=18839 - Big drops in both complaints and use of force. London Metro PD too. Disclaimer/Pitch: I'm a software engineer at Axon, who produces body worn cameras and digital evidence management software. They facilitated all of these studies, since we can't wait around for other people to do it. We're hiring, if you want to work on a product that does some genuine social good. There's some pretty cool problems to work on with the volume of video data we've got, as well as a whole host of other interesting opportunities. You can email me at brandon@evidence.com if you're interested.

Maxious 11y ago

> Hence dashcam audio that gets disabled "Chicago Police Department officers stashed microphones in their squad car glove boxes. They pulled out batteries. Microphone antennas got busted or went missing. And sometimes, dashcam systems didn’t have any microphones at all" https://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20160127/archer-heights/whats-behind-no-sound-syndrome-on-chicago-police-dashcams https://www.dnainfo.com/chicago/20160127/archer-heights/what...

brandonbloom 11y ago

jobu is spot on, but your conclusion doesn't follow. The truth is that police generally favor body cameras because it protects their officers from an incredibly high volume of false or overblown claims. Here's one reference: https://www.policeone.com/police-products/body-cameras/articles/6017774-Survey-Police-officers-want-body-worn-cameras/ https://www.policeone.com/police-products/body-cameras/artic... And to pile on the point made by the link that jobu posted, Rialto, CA had similarly stunning results in their study: http://www.ci.calistoga.ca.us/home/showdocument?id=18839 http://www.ci.calistoga.ca.us/home/showdocument?id=18839 - Big drops in both complaints and use of force. London Metro PD too. Disclaimer/Pitch: I'm a software engineer at Axon, who produces body worn cameras and digital evidence management software. They facilitated all of these studies, since we can't wait around for other people to do it. We're hiring, if you want to work on a product that does some genuine social good. There's some pretty cool problems to work on with the volume of video data we've got, as well as a whole host of other interesting opportunities. You can email me at brandon@evidence.com if you're interested.