A national clusterfu*k on all things related to police body cams, dash cams

[damnedifIknow]

The United States has a police brutality problem.

Beyond the reality that the United States incarcerates more people than any other nation in the world, our police officers shoot and kill more people in any given year than Germany and the United Kingdom combined over the past decade.

Police in the town of Pacos, Washington, with 59,000 people, have shot and killed more people the past six months than police in the United Kingdom, with a population of more than 60 million. And American police aren't shooting people left and right because they all have guns. Almost daily, a man or woman without a gun is shot and killed in America and problem is getting worse."

A Missouri lawmaker, in Senate Bill 331, is now proposing that all police-related videos be banned from public viewing. Here's the short bill proposed by Republican Senator Doug Libla:

590.810. 1. Any recording captured by a camera, which is capable of recording video or audio and is, during the course of a peace officer's official duties:
(1) Worn on the person of a peace officer;
(2) Attached to a peace officer's motor vehicle, watercraft, or aircraft; or
(3) Attached to any other device used by a peace officer,
shall not be a public record for purposes of the state's open records law under chapter 610 and shall not be disclosed by a law enforcement agency except upon order of a court in the course of a criminal investigation or prosecution or civil litigation.
2. No law enforcement agency shall be required by the state to provide cameras as described in subsection 1 of this section to officers employed by the agency, nor shall the state require any peace officer to wear such cameras.

Conservatives in Arizona have successfully advanced similar legislation that will prohibit the public from seeing footage from police cameras. "

A recent study found that half of the LAPD squad cars that were under review had tampered with their recording equipment to avoid being monitored."

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2015/02/23/1366239/-A-national-clusterfu-k-on-all-things-related-to-police-body-cams-dash-cams-etc

[Smarmie Doofus]

1. Truth is, we have a police STATE problem.

Body cams and street shootings are but the tip of the iceberg.

[riqster]

2. +1

[damnedifIknow]

4. We have major space exploration now

We can land an unmanned craft on Mars with pinpoint accuracy and yet we can't find a solution to this? Something tells me we aren't trying very hard.

[Scuba]

5. + another

[2naSalit]

3. That would be Pasco, WA

rather than Pacos.

I agree, we have a police state problem and we'd better figure out how to deal with it soon or else.