I disagree about the disarmament part. Particularly since the LA bank robbery and the guys in armored suits shot ten cops, they have been loading up. Actually, it started even earlier, with SWAT teams and the like.
if you really, really don’t want an experiment to succeed (messing up the whole blue lawlessness business and all), no wonder it will become “failed”. That article says that what, it all cost $40K per year? Or $250K per year? Why not fire a few “administrators” to free up the money? Or, even better, make the video recording program pay for itself by firing those cops caught misbehaving on video.
When there is a will, there is a way. All the more so nowadays when technology keeps getting cheaper and better. But nowadays the only will that the police seems to have is better surveillance for regular citizens, not for themselves.
If it prevents once bogus police brutality lawsuit, it will pay for itself many times over. OTOH, perhaps it will support many more claims of police misbehavior than it will disprove. Either way, the equipment and operational cost is absolute peanuts compared with the legal and liability costs.
Does a “five minute buffer” mean something like a five-minute loop? Are you suggesting that a 5 minute record, that is overwritten every 5 minutes, is adequate? That would be utterly inadequate, as complaints and accusations often take weeks or months to get to the point of an investigation even beginning. The video/audio record has to be treated as evidence, which means keeping it as complete as possible and storing it long term.
The fact remains that Otto Zehm was killed by the police, having done absolutely nothing wrong, and the local legal system did nothing. The feds had to come in and see that some semblance of justice was done. It wasn’t just the “police culture” that protected Thompson and the rest of the officers involved. The legal authorities of Spokane should have charged them. And didn’t.
My feeling (admittedly off the cuff, not very well thought out) was that if the video is streaming online and anyone could watch it, if someone saw something suspect they could click the download button to grab the last 5 minutes of video to keep a record of it. It wouldn’t be useful for someone after the fact, but trying to keep a database of every police officer’s video log for an extended period of time would be prohibitively expensive, IMO.
I will say up front that I am a retired detective. So what I say may be viewed as biased or merely as knowledge gained as an insider. Cop bashing has to be one of the most jumped on bandwagons. People are, almost naturally, resentful of authority - especially in a country that was founded upon the rights of the individual. They hate to be told that they may not do this or must do that. The public expects police to function without mistake. Cops aren’t supposed to get emotional or let their feelings get involved with what they are doing. In other words, they should behave with machine-like precision. Unless, of course, it is you who are are the one who gets stopped for speeding. Or having a loud party. Or possessing drugs outlawed by your lawmakers. When that happens the cops should have a heart, not be so rigid, give a guy a break or otherwise act human.
They are viewed as corrupt bullies and thugs who have let power go to their heads. Until you or your family member is bleeding to death as the result of an auto accident or gunshot. Then they can’t get there fast enough. You hate 'em until you need 'em. I, personally, have been cursed and spat at one day only to have the same person beg for my help in finding her son’s killer a few days later. Should I be the machine and go about my job without emotion? Or should I be human and empathize with this victim? This same victim who wished me dead a few days ago.
My point is that cops are in a unique position in society. Reviled and feared yet expected to place themselves in jeopardy to aid those who despise them. Expected to follow every rule to the letter when it comes to their own behavior but to exercise some discretion when it comes to everyone else’s behavior. This may ultimately lead to an us/them mentality. More so when the police are more involved in enforcement than service type calls. Being a whistle-blower in a job where your career (not to mention physical safety) may depend on they very people you are telling on is not an easy thing. Especially if the infractions are minor or “victimless”.
None of this is meant to be an excuse for police brutality or corrupt behavior. It is not. Most cops I know and have worked with have no time for the kind of behavior cited above. If a cop gets caught stealing from a defendant, beating someone who doesn’t deserve (legally) it or planting evidence - screw him. He just made the job of all the good cops that much harder.
The idea of recording my shift in its entirety kind of rubs me the wrong way. Turn the camera on when handling a call? No problem. It may give the public some idea of what police work is really like. CSI it ain’t. Almost all officers who have cameras in their cars wouldn’t be without them. It turns out that they are saving the careers of more officers than they are catching dirty ones. But that stuff doesn’t make a good headline so you rarely hear about it.
Like it or not, cops are people too. They suffer from the same faults as the rest of society. I don’t have a cite handy but one study estimated that less than 1% of officers are accused of criminal wrongdoing in a given year. That number will not include cases where no one files a complaint. It will include the number of false complaints filed for various reasons (hey - the best defense is a good offense, right?). This number is less than that for attorneys or clergy in the same year.
The cases of corruption that come up in where it is proven that there was a cover up or conspiracy of some sort almost always show some dysfunctional unit at the heart of it. It is rarely the whole department (although in some small departments that is exactly the case). It is usually the leadership to blame for ignoring the problem. Lets hold them accountable along with the specific officers.
So, I guess I am saying that the system isn’t fundamentally broken. Its fundamentally human. Until you find a way to change that, you will have to deal with “bad” cops with the tools the law gives you.
After a recent event requiring a detective to show up, he was rude, demanding, and totally acted the part of tough guy. About 20 minutes later he was laughing and talking to me like we were old friends.
All IMHO but he put on a tough guy act to express authority and when he realized it wasn’t needed he threw it out and became a human again. Some police officers may forget to turn off the “authority” figure part even when the person they are talking to, or even arresting, doesn’t need it. If that made any sense.