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Police unions will fight cameras. They will do cute, pilot programs in certain neighborhoods to fool us. I would like to see all police officers be required t

Police unions will fight cameras. They will do cute, pilot programs in certain neighborhoods to fool us. I would like to see all police officers be required to have a cam on(at all times)while on shift. It would just be like carrying a gun. "If you don't want to carry a gun---you just can't be a police officer. No Andy Griffith's on this force. Times have just changed. We carry guns-- we carry cams! If you do well on the test, and pass the psychological; you're hired. Good Luck. We hope to have the best, brightest, and most ethical on board." It will never happen because police departments are so scattered across the US, and know one is ultimately in charge. (On at all times. No covers for cams. One the whole time while on shift. Maybe a bathroom break exclusion, but I feel that would abused.)

jomamaxx 10y ago
Many cops welcome the cameras because it's their vindication and get-out-of-jail ticket for people making false claims. If I were a cop, I'd want one for sure.
- JshWright 10y ago
  I know a lot of cops, including many that wear body cameras. They are universally in favor of them, for the very reason you mentioned (they all have stories of times they were accused of misconduct, but had video evidence on their side).
  - mrgoldenbrown 10y ago
    Please have them come to Boston and convince their fellow officers. The union here is fighting them tooth and nail, even after being given financial incentives to pilot them.
- ccvannorman 10y ago
  "If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear" applies here. I would definitely want a camera if I was an officer, and I definitely don't want a (gov't always-on) camera if I'm a civilian.
VLM 10y ago
Infractions follow a power law graph. The general public and especially journalists are fascinated with video coverage of gory shootings. However, 99.9999% of infractions will be of a lesser nature. Given that unions and mgmt are by nature somewhat argumentative, the primary, almost exclusive use of body camera footage will be for selective enforcement against disliked employees who violated the equivalent of changing a TPS report header. Of course there will be no "bathroom break exclusion" thats about 99.999% of the point of even having it. Officers who are enemies of management will have regulations exhaustively enforced with video evidence to prove they spent 15 seconds longer than the union negotiated bathroom break time period and so on. Video evidence that the custodial broom was leaned up against the wall of the closet in violation of the earthquake protection regulation to hang the broom from the provided wall mounted earthquake proof hanger. Upon trivialities like this, careers will be destroyed. Careers of the "wrong" people, of course, only. For peculiar and probably corrupt or even illegal definition of "wrong". There are solutions such as requiring a judge to personally review all the footage before releasing it, or adding anti-witch hunt rules as part of union negotiations. Or maybe it just can't be done at the current level of mgmt ability and skill. My experience of working in secured camera'd facilities is it'll be sold as "protecting us from terrorists" and so forth but mostly it'll be used to discipline people who put their feet on their desk when they lean back and think, or to discipline employees who take too long to have a #2 in the bathroom. But it'll only be used to discipline enemies of mgmt, and handwaved away for the "good workers". Where "good" means anything from they're objectively skilled to merely being white.

jomamaxx 10y ago

Many cops welcome the cameras because it's their vindication and get-out-of-jail ticket for people making false claims. If I were a cop, I'd want one for sure.

JshWright 10y ago
I know a lot of cops, including many that wear body cameras. They are universally in favor of them, for the very reason you mentioned (they all have stories of times they were accused of misconduct, but had video evidence on their side).
- mrgoldenbrown 10y ago
  Please have them come to Boston and convince their fellow officers. The union here is fighting them tooth and nail, even after being given financial incentives to pilot them.
ccvannorman 10y ago
"If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear" applies here. I would definitely want a camera if I was an officer, and I definitely don't want a (gov't always-on) camera if I'm a civilian.

VLM 10y ago

Infractions follow a power law graph. The general public and especially journalists are fascinated with video coverage of gory shootings. However, 99.9999% of infractions will be of a lesser nature. Given that unions and mgmt are by nature somewhat argumentative, the primary, almost exclusive use of body camera footage will be for selective enforcement against disliked employees who violated the equivalent of changing a TPS report header. Of course there will be no "bathroom break exclusion" thats about 99.999% of the point of even having it. Officers who are enemies of management will have regulations exhaustively enforced with video evidence to prove they spent 15 seconds longer than the union negotiated bathroom break time period and so on. Video evidence that the custodial broom was leaned up against the wall of the closet in violation of the earthquake protection regulation to hang the broom from the provided wall mounted earthquake proof hanger. Upon trivialities like this, careers will be destroyed. Careers of the "wrong" people, of course, only. For peculiar and probably corrupt or even illegal definition of "wrong". There are solutions such as requiring a judge to personally review all the footage before releasing it, or adding anti-witch hunt rules as part of union negotiations. Or maybe it just can't be done at the current level of mgmt ability and skill. My experience of working in secured camera'd facilities is it'll be sold as "protecting us from terrorists" and so forth but mostly it'll be used to discipline people who put their feet on their desk when they lean back and think, or to discipline employees who take too long to have a #2 in the bathroom. But it'll only be used to discipline enemies of mgmt, and handwaved away for the "good workers". Where "good" means anything from they're objectively skilled to merely being white.