"All cops should be wearing cameras" UPDATE AUGUST 20, 2014

[itsrobert]

UPDATE: I am now convinced Law Enforcement should be wearing the Cameras. I was skeptical, not really against it. But something needs to change.


Who else besides cops should be wearing cameras at work?

Teachers?
Doctors? Nurses? Medical personnel?
Wall Street Broker?
Politicians?
Truck Drivers?
Postal Workers, Fedex/UPS/USPS drivers?
Bus Drivers?
Taxi Drivers?
Military personnel?
Airline Pilots? Flight Attendants?
Aircraft mechanics, auto mechanics?
Federal employees? State employees?

Be careful what you wish for, your job could be next. For example, both conservatives and liberals could make arguments why Teachers should wear cameras. (dare to teach the wrong "subject", history of sex predators in school, some teachers have hit students, some teachers have verbally abused students, not saying "God" in the Pledge of Allegiance, making students say "God" in the Pledge of Allegiance. etc, etc.


UPDATE: I am now convinced Law Enforcement should be wearing the Cameras. I was skeptical, not really against it. But something needs to change.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

1. As a nurse, I'd be fine with wearing a camera.

It would save a lot of angst over potential lawsuits if you had proof that you did what you said you did, even if you missed charting something.

Don't forget factory farm workers in your list. There should be plenty of cameras around to prevent animal cruelty.

[itsrobert]

4. True

You are correct. Factory farm workers. I am sure a lot of jobs could be justified.


Ever have a bad day at work? When you make a mistake, the camera/video magnifies those mistakes. Employers could use them to terminate employees very easily.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

5. When your 'bad days' result in members of the public dying

then just maybe you need to lose your job.

[itsrobert]

12. But what it just catches you making mistakes that don't result in loss of life/ or potential loss of

life?

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

16. Then I better hope that my mistakes are less bad than those of the average worker in the field.

Or I'll get fired, and deservedly so.

Really, claiming that the best possibility is that there is no evidence that people are incompetent, so that incompetent people can keep their jobs is a pretty backwards way to look at life.

Do you really want incompetent police, incompetent doctors, incompetent nurses? Why are you so averse to people who screw up badly losing their jobs? Are you sucky at your own job, so you worry that cameras might come to your workplace?

[itsrobert]

19. You believe all supervisors/managers are even handed and honorable?

You have much for faith in leadership than I do.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

21. No, but I 'believe in' impartial evidence.

If you've got a crappy supervisor, you're a lot better off with video evidence than just 'your word' versus theirs.

[bravenak]

2. We can start with Cops.

Since it's your word against theirs and theirs carry more weight. If they shoot me, I'd at least like a record of the murder. For my family. I'm black though, so it should be totally understandable that cops treat people who look like me a bit differently.

[itsrobert]

7. A teacher's word carries more weight than a child.

Some teachers treat some student differently too.

[bravenak]

9. Teachers rarely shoot kids in the back.

Lets start with people who have the power of life and death over someone. The ones who use that power without consequences.

[itsrobert]

13. Let's "start".....

Sounds like a slippery slope to me.

[bravenak]

18. Don't care.

Sound like Cops need more checks and balances to ME.

[itsrobert]

20. Keyword "me"

I guess other "me's" might think your work needs checks and balances.

[bravenak]

52. I'm glad we settled this.

I used to work as a cashier and the camera was ALWAYS on me. I never thought about it. Then one of the stores got robbed and the video helped catch the robbers. It was a relation of one of the employees and a friend of another. It showed the employee leaving the safe open obviouly against procedure. They checked to see how she usually did it. Very different.

We had cameras on us and we weren't even dangerous.

[Autumn]

3. Yes they should. They carry a deadly weapon, unlike the others you mention.

When those workers can shoot to kill then we can put cameras on them too.

[itsrobert]

15. Make a mistake on an aircraft

Could be responsible for many lives lost.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

17. Why they have black boxes that record all the audio in the cockpit.

You could push for video there too, but I don't think it would actually add much.

[itsrobert]

22. Video and real time audio in the cockpit

have been advocated in the past. What about a mechanic who can make a potential deadly error?

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

27. You seem to have me confused with someone else.

I'm the one who is fine with cameras. You can keep throwing out different job titles all day, but you're the one who is aghast at the thought of work being monitored, not me. My first decade+ was in IT, where everything I did at work left a time-stamped audit trail. Sure, they didn't get to see me picking my nose, but they could tell when I was being productive, or when I wasn't.

So I don't care if motorcycle racers, horse inseminators, walmart greeters, or any other job title you throw out wants to have cameras.

Now you can call me an authoritarian and get your huff on.

[The Second Stone]

6. I have a dash cam for my car and I've used it in a court case

for a client. I would love to wear one around my neck, but it is against the law to audio record someone in many situations. I would love to have one in the courtroom.

[In_The_Wind]

43. I hope the loop from my dash cam is never needed in court.

I drive a pilot car for oversize trucks.

[glowing]

8. Most buses do have cameras on them.. FYI.

[mokawanis]

10. I'm on camera all day at work

and I work with psychiatric patients who are challenging and sometimes dangerous. The kinds of people cops end up beating and shooting. I say put a camera on the cops and force them to quit acting like violent thugs.

[JaneyVee]

11. Any profession that uses guns.

[MohRokTah]

14. Of you list, military personnel are the only other category.

They carry guns, too.

[itsrobert]

25. So everyone that owns a gun?

You might have problems with the NRA.

[MohRokTah]

28. No, those who carry guns and use them in the course of their profession to afix authority.

Those who have the power to pull a gun and shoot people and it not be a crime.

I said nothing about gun owners.

[itsrobert]

33. But gun-owners do carry guns for self-defense

and do have the power to pull a gun and shoot people and it is not to be a crime. Many cases in states like Texas where gun owners have killed people on their property that were attempting to runaway. And they were deemed legal killings.

[MohRokTah]

40. You're not changing my mind

Cameras on all cops. For the camera to be off should be a crime.

[hollowdweller]

23. Just give the employee the rights to the film

Somehow make it to where they can't be tampered with and the date and time and all is on there.

Then either collect them from employees and put them in storage or have the employee keep them.

That way you wouldn't be spied on at work yet if somebody accused you of something you could establish you didn't.

There would be no reason to look at them unless there was some complaint or something.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

29. You'd have to have a central repository

or else cops who knew they'd committed crimes would 'accidentally' lose the appropriate video footage.

[randome]

46. Or many central repositories. Cloud-based and transferred to random network servers.

'Random' in the sense of a set number of connected servers. Oh, and encrypted without the police knowing the encryption key.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]Everything is a satellite to some other thing.[/center][/font][hr]

[Iggo]

24. If teachers were killing people like cops are, I'd want them to wear cameras, too.

See how that works?

[itsrobert]

26. Hmm, some teachers have molested their students

Shouldn't we protect our kids by putting cameras on teachers?

[Iggo]

31. Too late. I already kicked the field goal. (n/t)

[randome]

48. Every minute they are on the clock, yes.

[hr][font color="blue"][center]Everything is a satellite to some other thing.[/center][/font][hr]

[ecstatic]

30. Sorry, cops are out of control. Wearing a camera is a good start

It's the least we can do if serious about fixing this problem.

[jmowreader]

32. Retail employees!

Someone needs to dig Harry Selfridge up and posthumously kick him right in the balls over that "the customer is always right" shit. As long as retailers are firing people over the word of "the customer" without asking "the employee" what happened, "the employee" needs the kind of protection a camera can provide.

[Logical]

34. LOL, is this a parody post? nt

[SwankyXomb]

38. Sadly not

This is what cop apologists actually believe.

[Cicada]

35. I think complaints plummet after cameras

So cameras do good with cops, For other safety-related uses it might be worth a try.

[99Forever]

36. No other profession has the means....

... to beat, kill, bring false charges, or even rob people without repercussions quite so frequently or a easily.

Good cops should WELCOME cameras. Dirty, lying, brutal, criminal cops fear them.

[itsrobert]

39. So any cop that is not for cameras

Is "dirty,lying, brutal, criminal"?

I see.

For the record, I am not a cop. So if you are trying to call me "dirty, lying, brutal, criminal", you would be wrong.

[99Forever]

42. I didn't "call YOU" anything, FOR THE RECORD.

Why would you even go there? Do you make it a habit to read shit into othrer people's words that isn't there? I meant EXACTLY what I said, no more, no less.

[KG]

37. the ol' false equivalency gambit....

[rock]

41. Certainly the politicians

And they should not be allowed to take phone calls or have email without monitoring. Getting a politician depends on three things:
1) the individual and the degree of larceny in his heart (I believe that some are more impervious than others; some are more susceptible than others);
2) How much one is offering;
OK two.

[U4ikLefty]

44. doughnut cam?

[Crunchy Frog]

45. No, just cops.

[randome]

47. If you serve the public interest, you follow the lead of the public.

Yes to cameras, every single minute an officer is on duty.

"It's the only way to be sure."

[hr][font color="blue"][center]Everything is a satellite to some other thing.[/center][/font][hr]

[geomon666]

49. Yes to all of them.

If it means putting a stop to the rampant corruption and abuse, or at least slowing it down, by all means put a camera on these people.

[itsrobert]

50. UPDATE

UPDATE: I am now convinced Law Enforcement should be wearing the Cameras. I was skeptical, not really against it. But something needs to change.

[notadmblnd]

51. Any one that uses a gun in their profession

Needs to wear a camera.

[hardcover]

53. Yes all law enforcement people should wear cameras while on duty

[intaglio]

54. Police certainly

Teachers - yes, for their own protection and that of their students

Doctors, Nurses, other medical personnel - difficult because of patient confidentiality/privacy issues but operating theatre staff certainly and probably ER should have wide coverage monitoring

Wall Street Brokers, Politicians - I wish! Many should be wearing orange jump suits.

Truck, bus and taxi drivers should certainly have good high def. workplace cameras for their own safety; certainly for bus drivers they are becoming far more common. Dash cams should also be standard.

Postal workers (as opposed to delivery men) in the UK already subject to high levels of workplace surveillance.

Delivery men - postal and otherwise, should have lowjack/onstar fitted and vehicles should carry dashcams.

Military personnel - starting to be implemented, provides high grade tactical information.

Airline pilots - video monitoring of the flight deck should be standard just as the cockpit voice recorder is standard.

Flight Attendants, aircraft mechanics, auto mechanics - probably not.

Federal and state employees - should vary; prison staff should be subject to the same restrictions as police, whether publicly or privately employed

The big problem with video surveillance has been the storage of the data but storage is always coming down in price (128 GB flash drive are less than $100) that is not a limitation. Penny pinching employers unwilling to upgrade lo-res systems with high def ones also limit the usefulness.