What’s so hard about police video?

[hrmjustin]

Azi Paybarah

On Aug. 12, a federal judge ruled that the New York Police Department violated the civil rights of millions of residents by subjecting them to a tactic known as stop-and-frisk. To remedy the problem, the judge sought to install a federal monitor to watch the department, and also ordered police in the five precincts with the most stop-and-frisk complaints to wear cameras, so the courts, and the public, would be able to see exactly what’s happening there.

The idea would be revolutionary, in the sense that the NYPD has never had body cameras before. But in another important sense, the idea isn’t revolutionary at all.

With the ubiquity of smart phones and surveillance cameras, an increasing number of police interactions are captured on video (if not live-streamed, as was the case during the Occupy Wall Street demonstrations in New York and, now, protests in Ferguson, Mo.).

It was an amateur video of the arrest of Eric Garner, who died in police custody after an officer restrained him with what appears to be a chokehold, that has led to the first major debate about police policy since the election of Mayor Bill de Blasio. And since July 13, there have been four police encounters captured by amateur video that have led to investigations by the NYPD’s Internal Affairs Bureau, the Civilian Complaint Review Board and, in Garner’s case, the Staten Island district attorney.

http://www.capitalnewyork.com/article/city-hall/2014/08/8551249/whats-so-hard-about-police-video

[pipoman]

1. Maybe instead of handing out military gear to police departments

The feds should hand out body cams...far cheaper and definitely more useful than a tactical SUV to most police departments. But alas, police don't want oversight which is why they so often object to onlookers filming them. It is a nobrainer from a government accountability standpoint.

[hrmjustin]

2. Depends on the cop. Some copx want cams but some don't.

My guesss in the next 5 years they are coming to nyc.

[rock]

3. I suspect the cops can't handle the truth!

Works best said with a Jack Nicholson accent.

[hrmjustin]

4. I read that some police want the cameras so it probably depends on the force