All Police Should Be Required By Law To Wear Personal Recorders

Status
Not open for further replies.
D

damien

Member
Joined
Mar 5, 2007
Messages
1,212
Location
Northern IL, USA
Most cops are good guys. Of course, sometimes, a story like this comes along:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/06/20/diabteic_tasering/

My thought is that with all the microelectronics we have today with IPODs that have 80GB drives and weight a few ounces, we should just require that all law enforcement wear personal recorders that record video and audio. They would be inserted in their shirt pocket and have the recording part overlap the top of the pocked, like a pocket protector. The video/audio/GPS information would be stored on a high capacity SD card. If the card goes missing, the cop gets fired. Soon broadband wireless will be available where the video could be sent back to the cop shop immediately.

It would protect good cops from false accusations. It would identify bad cops immediately. When broadband kicks in, supervisors at the cop shop could see what is going down and provide supervision. I think we should implement this immediately.

The technology is cheap. This would cost less to manufacture than the cost of the cop's gun or vest.
 
Sure would have been interesting to have the cops wearing "big brother" devices during the Manassas, VA incident. I worry about the implications of that sort of surveilance, especially if the police are entering a private residence but sometimes I find I really wish there were an independant record of events.
 
Personally, I think that having cell phones with a 24 hour record loop isn't a bad idea either. With the prices of flash going down as they are, I expect it to happen fairly soon.
 
No a bad idea for the average citizen for their own protection. Granted there might be some wiretapping laws to consider, but I figure that as long as everyone is aware that it is happening, then so be it. Might be enough to say that "this conversation may be recorded...". Customer Service centers do it all the time in every state so it's not too difficult to get around the wiretapping laws.
 
You'd run into a bunch of issues with reliability. Although the most useful thing I carried was my radio, the fact that it was an electronic device could be a huge pain.

If anything I carried was going to fail, it wasn't my gun, handcuffs, or collapsible baton. It was the electronic radio. If I had to tackle someone, pretty much the only things that might get broken were my radio or my sunglasses.

Cameras are some of the most useful things around. We had people saying all the time that we stole money from their cars (this was at a Border Patrol traffic checkpoint), but these people didn't realize that the checkpoint had 50+ cameras that were going to show that we didn't go anywhere near their car. We had a guy accused of "improper touching" of a suspect in the processing area, also cleared by cameras. There were also a couple bad agents who got caught doing things they should not have done by the cameras (which wins the stupidity award since we all knew that they were there.) I just don't know about carrying a personal one.

I'm not saying the idea is terrible, but I picture a cop running after a suspect and the electronic device failing, and then a bunch of people saying the cop should be fired because the arrest wasn't captured on his personal recording device. For something to be rugged, it usually needs to weigh a good bit, and frankly with the vest and 17 pound belt I think cops have to carry enough stuff.
 
Good idea, but would not some of your odd wiretapping laws come into play here?
Click to expand...

Since it would require a law to make this happen in any case, the wiretapping issue could be handled at that time.

You'd run into a bunch of issues with reliability.
Click to expand...

Certainly reliability and weight would have to be addressed. Making this device light should not be an issue. If it is all microelectronics it would be pretty light. Obviously it would have to be ruggedized. I envision an aluminum case with a rubber coating and a small (synthetic) sapphire lens (very durable). I don't envision any moving parts. Microelectronics like this can withstand more G's than a person can so I don't see it getting broken unless it gets thrown out the window of the squad car :) . But everyone would have to be confident of the technology before it is required.
 
I wear a Xonix watch for exactly that reason. They can get me on wiretapping if they want, either way whatever happens is going into the court of public opinion.

MP-501s2.jpg
 
  1. $$$?
  2. "Your Honor, my defendent cannot produce the the recording in question because the recording device suffered considerable water damage the night before."
 
Police nationwide have had to have dashboard cameras that DO also record audio and well as video for years. I remember one time when I got into what I felt was a discussion, the cop felt it was an argument, about why I was not going to leave the parking lot at Sonic on night. I had just gotten my food, was on my motorcycle and he came in to run off all the motorcycles. Anyway when I asked him to call his filed supervisor because he was getting belligerent, he got in my face and I told him to consult his dash cam to see if he should go any further...he backed off big time. He ended up doing a burnout out of the exit and almost hitting another car he was so pissed. I seem to remember he was fired off of the force that same Summer.
 
An air traffic controller has every word on a radio frequency or hot-line recorded. It is no different than recording everything an LEO says in the course of his duties. His radio calls are already recorded and there are cameras in patrol cars.
 
No a bad idea for the average citizen for their own protection. Granted there might be some wiretapping laws to consider, but I figure that as long as everyone is aware that it is happening, then so be it. Might be enough to say that "this conversation may be recorded...". Customer Service centers do it all the time in every state so it's not too difficult to get around the wiretapping laws.
Click to expand...

Just to clarify, you are talking about the cops having the recording cellphones, not citizens.

Right? Because I don't like having my conversations recorded. Or monitored.
 
In Tennessee, only one of the parties involved in a conversation are required to know it's being recorded. Doesn't matter which party. The law only protects you from being recorded by a third party.
These laws do vary from state to state.

Also, several of the L.E.O.s I know already have a remote mic that feeds back to their dash cam, letting it record the audio.


J.C.
 
I think all Public Service folks should have a small A/V recorder.

It would work well for EMTs and Paramedics who get wrongly accused of theft by drunk or otherwise impaired victims. It would also document what treatments they performed.

Parking Meter folks (AKA meter maids) should have them because it would document that a meter was really expired, and it would show how irate and beligerant some folks are who confront them after getting a parking ticket.

We know how great dash cams are on police vehicles. They not only document wrongdoing by citizens, but also show wrongdoing by the police. Since much of police work takes place away from the front of their car, personal recorders would be a good idea.

Also, I feel a recording devices should be manditory for all SWAT Ops, home entrys, "no Knock raids", etc, where questionable actions and tactics are frequently used by law enforcement.
 
Wiretapping typically requires the consent of any party to the conversation. Since the officer is a representative of the state, the government could consent to record all conversations with officers. It would be no more legally controversial than the idea of putting video recorders on police cruisers and I think it would have the exact same beneficial effects.

Remember that video where the guy holding a cell phone like a gun got shot after a chase? It sounded really terrible for the police to have shot a guy with a cell phone, but once everyone saw the video, the shooting made a lot more sense. I had to watch it 3 times before I realized he wasn't holding a gun. Good cop protected.

Similarly, dash cams have captured many unjustified shootings and enabled the victims to defeat cover-up attempts and avoid retaliatory accusations. I remember a case where a cop shot a suspect on the ground claiming he had tried to reach for the officers gun. Video showed the cop was lying. Bad cop gets yanked.

In all of these situations, the camera doesn't lie- good people are protected and bad people are brought to justice. It is more efficient than trying to dig the truth out of witness statements and more reliable. Cops with permanently attached uniform cameras will strengthen the reliability of their testimony while exposing liars.
 
1. $$$?

2. "Your Honor, my defendent cannot produce the the recording in question because the recording device suffered considerable water damage the night before."
Click to expand...

1) varies from $150 to $280, last I checked, mines a couple of years old.

2) you would be suprised (I usually am) by how few people, LEO included, take notice of it at all.
 
We already have body mikes and dash cams, so I don't see a problem. The dash cam can be set to activate manually or automatically when you activate your lights.

The only problem I can see is the ACLU or some other privacy advocate might get upset that you're recording people without their consent. That doesn't count here in Arkansas where the laws are similar to Tennessee's: only one party to a conversation needs to know it's being recorded. I've seen it happen time and time again, a stop is challenged in court, we play the video of the defendant driving, the stop gets upheld. A lot of times a lawyer will look at the video in a DUI case before court and immediately work a plea with the prosecutor. Saves everyone involved a lot of time. :rolleyes:
 
Your Honor, my defendant, Johnny Q. Law, is in no way intentionally obstructing justice. Seriously! It got wet the night before when he, um, er, fell in the lake! The recorder must have shorted out or something. Tell you what - we should sue the company that makes these devices for not making them waterproof.

"Councellor, the model ### that's issued to cops *are* waterproof."

For god sakes, he's got a family and he's a decorated veteran of the force! While you sleep at night, he's out there protecting this community from evildoers. He is well deserving of the public's trust. Stupid legal technicalities don't apply here.

"So, are you saying that Defendant Johnny Q. is above the law?"

That's exactly what I'm saying! No, wait....
 
Your Honor, my defendant, Johnny Q. Law, is in no way intentionally obstructing justice. Seriously! It got wet the night before when he, um, er, fell in the lake! The recorder must have shorted out or something. Tell you what - we should sue the company that makes these devices for not making them waterproof.
Click to expand...

Are you willing to admit that you get your information on the day to day operations of a police department from Hollywood and TV? :neener:
 
So we are against big brother, stop-light cameras, Englands surveillance fetish, unmanned drones over american cities, street-corner cameras, NSA wiretaps and all the other tech intrusions we may face in our lives...

however, when a cops privacy, life or job is infringed upon or hindered...


its A-OK :rolleyes::scrutiny:
 
A wise man once intimated that when a man assumes a public trust he also assumes public scrutiny. There is NO privacy when wielding authority

Jefferson
 
Personally I cannot even fathom the idea of me doing my job w/o the help of the in-car video and audio. I even run the thing when only the audio will be available such as when inside a home. The camera will only film whatever is parked infront of my patrol car but the audio will record up to 1,000 feet from the car.

Our cars have a digital camera and audio loop which is saved to a hard drive, when we return to the jail it automatically downloads to a server which we then burn to a cd for case inclusion.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.

Similar threads

T
  • Locked
Why Are Our New (Police) Recruits Misfits, Morons & Malcontents?
2
Replies
34
Views
1K
pax
P
A
  • Locked
UK-Rise in gun crime 'may mean all police should carry arms'
Replies
1
Views
823
Ledbetter
L
O
  • Locked
Are these merely Terry stops, or is this acceptable policing?
Replies
9
Views
934
revjen45
R
A
  • Locked
more from JPFO on Florida traffic stop and tasering of driver, and another item too.
Replies
4
Views
616
Henry Bowman
H
M
  • Locked
Seized guns resold by police
Replies
2
Views
584
Aguila Blanca
A
Back
Top