Denver police cameras didn't record most use-of-force cases
Source: AP-Excite
By SADIE GURMAN
DENVER (AP) — In a warning to law enforcement agencies rushing to equip officers with body cameras after killings by police nationwide, a new report says the devices used by Denver officers during a trial period didn't record most of the use-of-force incidents that occurred.
Denver's independent police monitor, Nicholas Mitchell, also said police used force more often and citizens' complaints against officers rose during the cameras' six-month trial period in the city's busy downtown district. Police officials repeatedly said they expected the cameras would drive down those numbers.
Experts say the early findings released Tuesday are a reminder that the effectiveness of the increasingly popular technology, billed as a tool to improve police accountability, still depends on the officers using it.
Denver officers' body cameras recorded just 21 of 80 documented uses of force in the downtown district during the trial, which ran from June to December, Mitchell found. Thirty-five of the encounters weren't recorded because they involved off-duty officers, who were not required to wear the cameras while moonlighting as security guards.
FULL story at link.
Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20150311/us--denver_police-body_cameras-ee53de0613.html
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YOUTUBE
A frame grab from a video posted on YouTube shows police officers chasing Juaquez Johnson into a house at 33rd and Seward Streets on March 21, 2013.
http://www.omaha.com/news/omaha-officers-told-don-t-interfere-with-citizens-right-to/article_138c5ce9-d595-53f6-b80c-fe5b64f61267.html
POSTED: SATURDAY, MAY 11, 2013 12:00 AM
By Maggie O'Brien WORLD-HERALD STAFF WRITER
Omaha police officers are hitting the streets with a clear directive: Don't interfere with citizens' right to record police action.
The department has refined its policy on the public's use of cameras and video in the wake of a YouTube posting of an arrest that led to the firing of four officers, two of whom are charged with criminal wrongdoing. The March 21 incident highlighted the sometimes contentious terrain that officers and citizens navigate when cameras increasingly capture their interactions.
“Individuals have a First Amendment right to record police officers in the public discharge of their duties, plain and simple,” said Deputy Chief Greg Gonzalez.
The department has long recognized that right. But the revised policy, which cites federal case law, states that citizens cannot be arrested simply for recording police or being near a crime scene.
FULL story at link.
Because all the good cops would prevent criminals from serving as police officers.
They are not being protected from the public, it's the other way around, the cameras are to protect the public from the cops. Once they get the idea right, it should be straightforward to make it happen. But you need to ignore the cops habitual self-pity first.
The cops must NOT be in control of the cameras, and must NOT be able to turn them off. They are low-level employees, and need to learn their place. We should really replace them with robots anyway, robots are more reliable and don't give you any lip.
