Police Body Cams: DOJ Unveils $20M Program to Expand Use

[IDemo]

Source: NBC

A $20 million pilot program to extend the use of police body cameras for "transparency" was announced by the Department of Justice on Friday, amid nationwide protests over police treatment of suspects.

A string of recent cases — the fatal shooting of Michael Brown by a white officer in Ferguson, Mo., the killing of a homeless man on Los Angeles' Skid Row and most recently the spinal injury while in police custody that led to the death of Baltimore's Freddie Gray — have prompted calls for greater transparency from authorities and more adoption of body cameras.

"Body-worn cameras hold tremendous promise for enhancing transparency, promoting accountability, and advancing public safety for law enforcement officers and the communities they serve," new Attorney General Loretta Lynch said in a press release.

The scheme includes $17 million in competitive grants for cameras, $2 million for training and technical assistance, and $1 million for evaluation.

Read more: http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/baltimore-unrest/body-worn-cameras-get-20m-federal-pilot-amid-baltimore-protests-n351721

[blackspade]

1. I hate to say it, but body cams are a bandade.

Not that they won't help in the short term, but they do not and will not address the systemic brutality that are integral to our law 'enforcement.'

[old guy]

3. Unfortunately for all of us, you are correct.

How and why have we come to the point where we must use these methods to try to assure ourselves that our own law enforcement people are not themselves criminals? I cannot understand.

[d_legendary1]

9. Agree 1,000%

Real change is putting people in the system who aren't afraid to turn in one of their own and prosecutors who aren't afraid to prosecute.

[OneCrazyDiamond]

2. They also need black boxes for transport vehicles.

That way if something happens on the way to the station the drivers actions are recorded.

[RecoveringJournalist]

4. They are a necessity

All police departments should require body cams which are remotely operated from the dispatch center. An officer responds to a call, the camera is turned on remotely. Will they solve the systemic issues at hand, no. But an officer who knows in advance that his actions are being recorded and that he cannot stop it will possibly think twice before doing some of the things that are being done now. North Charleston Officer Michael Slager might not have shot Walter Scott if he knew a cam would see the fact that Scott was running away as the gun was fired. Additionally, that cam would have seen everything from the moment the stop began. Cams are definitely a step in the right direction.

[libdem4life]

7. Cameras on police...cell phone brigade...surveillance cameras...any police-involved death goes

immediately to the State's Attorney and the officer automatically suspended. Seems to be a lack of confidence in the PD, really, really no-confidence. Cameras on them everywhere...including paddy wagons.

[IDemo]

5. I'm thinking body cams for detainees might not be a bad idea, either n/t

[Deadbeat Republicans]

6. Go dutch.

Split the expenses with the lower IQ's.

[Joe Chi Minh]

8. The whole judicial-system personnel seem to need voice-recorders and

maybe electronic tagging, as much as John Law needs filming.

Adam Smith, the 18th century moral philosopher/economist,whom the UK Tories had the gall to tout as the great champion of free markets, had a similar attitude towards businessmen, who, he reckoned couldn't even be trusted to have a coffee together without conspiring to rip off the public by raising prices; he was quite blunt about their being enemies of the common good, if not monitored and brought into subjection.

Oh, and he also thought people should pay income tax according to their ability to do so. Sorry for the digression. But not quite enough to delete it!