4 ms·

I talked to a police officer in Germany and he told me that police abuse happens even if they wear cameras. He said that those who wear cameras simply don't rec

I talked to a police officer in Germany and he told me that police abuse happens even if they wear cameras. He said that those who wear cameras simply don't record their colleagues who are hitting people i.e. looking to another direction deliberately. And I'm sure that if you start to punish them based on those body cameras, you'll see that the police officers will give you biased footage. Although I can imagine that police officers start to change their behaviour because they're watched (there are studies showing positive changes in behaviour due to surveillance), there must also be more education for the police officers in regards to baseline probabilities so that they realize that black and white people aren't different in behaviour, this could help them to realize that their intuition is not profound. I think helping them to understand cognitive biases is a good way to start a shift. All of this requires that they aren't doing abuses deliberately, though.

NoGravitas 10y ago
Police officers have started putting their car hoods up when they make stops, to block the dash cams.
- treehau5 10y ago
  Then make it a law -- In order to police, you must be capturing. Zero tolerance, and we all know American society loves Zero tolerance.
- jws 10y ago
  This is not true. A pair of images recently made the rounds of the internet with that speculation, but that was not a traffic stop. Some models of police cars overheat if left running and parked on very hot days. The officers leave the cars running to power their electronics and lights. Some officers were trying to ameliorate that situation. Snopes can tell you more.
  - fil_a_del_fee_a 10y ago
    Snopes is biased. Police cars are engineered to run 24/7 in the blistering heat with all electronics running. That is why there are specially created models from GM, Ford, and Dodge that are beefed up to handle the stress of every day police use.
    - hx87 10y ago
      And if that fails, they can always buy hybrid models that don't need the engine idling all the time.
  - NoGravitas 10y ago
    The Snopes story seems to just take the response from the police department at face value. The story on Jalopnik[0] is more skeptical. [0]: https://jalopnik.com/is-this-virginia-police-department-popping-the-hoods-on-1787096994 https://jalopnik.com/is-this-virginia-police-department-popp...
  - st3v3r 10y ago
    I honestly cannot trust that. With all of the abuses the police have pulled off over the years when it comes to this sort of thing, I cannot trust them. They do not deserve the benefit of the doubt.
  - jessaustin 10y ago
    The officers leave the cars running to power their electronics and lights. Those could be powered by the two giant batteries installed in every police vehicle. The engine is left running for the air conditioner. If "experts" are claiming the above, they are not experts.
- JshWright 10y ago
  According to...?
  - eth0up 10y ago
    Not sure if it's been verified, but the parent reference itself is legit: https://jalopnik.com/is-this-virginia-police-department-popping-the-hoods-on-1787096994 https://jalopnik.com/is-this-virginia-police-department-popp... - from 9/26/2016
gerbilly 10y ago
>And I'm sure that if you start to punish them based on those body cameras, you'll see that the police officers will give you biased footage. And in a way this may be worse than no footage, because the biased footage may be used to discredit eyewitness accounts of abuse.
knightofmars 10y ago
Humans game every system, it is our nature. Awareness of our behaviors is the first step in taking measures to alter those behaviors. A body camera, while it may be subject to the same human gaming in some regards, provides awareness of police interaction that has previously been unavailable. Additionally, identifying those individuals who are willing to game the system provides value as well.
dragonwriter 10y ago
> there must also be more education for the police officers in regards to baseline probabilities so that they realize that black and white people aren't different in behavior Black and white people are different in behavior, on average. There are many reasons for this, among them that black and white people (both directly and through their social networks and family histories) have very different experiences of how the police (and public authorities more generally) act toward them going back in an unbroken chain for several centuries.

NoGravitas 10y ago

Police officers have started putting their car hoods up when they make stops, to block the dash cams.

treehau5 10y ago
Then make it a law -- In order to police, you must be capturing. Zero tolerance, and we all know American society loves Zero tolerance.
jws 10y ago
This is not true. A pair of images recently made the rounds of the internet with that speculation, but that was not a traffic stop. Some models of police cars overheat if left running and parked on very hot days. The officers leave the cars running to power their electronics and lights. Some officers were trying to ameliorate that situation. Snopes can tell you more.
- fil_a_del_fee_a 10y ago
  Snopes is biased. Police cars are engineered to run 24/7 in the blistering heat with all electronics running. That is why there are specially created models from GM, Ford, and Dodge that are beefed up to handle the stress of every day police use.
  - hx87 10y ago
    And if that fails, they can always buy hybrid models that don't need the engine idling all the time.
- NoGravitas 10y ago
  The Snopes story seems to just take the response from the police department at face value. The story on Jalopnik[0] is more skeptical. [0]: https://jalopnik.com/is-this-virginia-police-department-popping-the-hoods-on-1787096994 https://jalopnik.com/is-this-virginia-police-department-popp...
- st3v3r 10y ago
  I honestly cannot trust that. With all of the abuses the police have pulled off over the years when it comes to this sort of thing, I cannot trust them. They do not deserve the benefit of the doubt.
- jessaustin 10y ago
  The officers leave the cars running to power their electronics and lights. Those could be powered by the two giant batteries installed in every police vehicle. The engine is left running for the air conditioner. If "experts" are claiming the above, they are not experts.
JshWright 10y ago
According to...?
- eth0up 10y ago
  Not sure if it's been verified, but the parent reference itself is legit: https://jalopnik.com/is-this-virginia-police-department-popping-the-hoods-on-1787096994 https://jalopnik.com/is-this-virginia-police-department-popp... - from 9/26/2016

gerbilly 10y ago

>And I'm sure that if you start to punish them based on those body cameras, you'll see that the police officers will give you biased footage. And in a way this may be worse than no footage, because the biased footage may be used to discredit eyewitness accounts of abuse.

knightofmars 10y ago

Humans game every system, it is our nature. Awareness of our behaviors is the first step in taking measures to alter those behaviors. A body camera, while it may be subject to the same human gaming in some regards, provides awareness of police interaction that has previously been unavailable. Additionally, identifying those individuals who are willing to game the system provides value as well.

dragonwriter 10y ago

> there must also be more education for the police officers in regards to baseline probabilities so that they realize that black and white people aren't different in behavior Black and white people are different in behavior, on average. There are many reasons for this, among them that black and white people (both directly and through their social networks and family histories) have very different experiences of how the police (and public authorities more generally) act toward them going back in an unbroken chain for several centuries.