

San Jose police test head-mounted cameras for officers - ruby_roo
http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_14030412

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ShabbyDoo
Does the on-belt computer not have enough storage capacity to cover an entire
shift? Even at a couple of GB/hour, it would only take about $10 worth of
flash to store a day's worth of video. Why make the officer remember to turn
on his device?

I used to work for a trucking company that was looking into archiving dashcam
video along with left/right lane video. Interestingly, drivers were begging
for it. Why? They perceived that big trucks were often blamed unfairly for
accidents, so they thought that the net effect would be fewer at-fault
accidents -- even if the video occasionally could be used to show their
culpability.

Before the trucking gig, I worked for a healthcare software company. One of
our hospital clients had locator devices for its floor nurses. One could tell,
for example, that Sue was in Room 512 and could use that room's intercom to
communicate with her. Apparently, the system was once used to fire an employee
for taking frequent smoking breaks, but it also once helped exonerate nurses
when a patient claimed neglect. In this case, the mother of a chronically ill
child complained that she had to perform a particular treatment herself
because the staff never followed through. A review of the location data showed
that, even if she was telling the truth, a staff member was in the room
watching her each time! The mother recanted her story.

If I lived in San Jose, I would welcome a policy where the police would be
forced to release video of a civilian interaction upon request from the
civilian involved. The default for police departments ought to be
transparency, but I'd take this as a first step.

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Anechoic
_Why make the officer remember to turn on his device?_

Do we want a bunch of video of the officer in locker rooms and lavatories
hitting YouTube? Because that is what is going to happen if the officer can't
turn it off (which means they'll have to turn it on later).

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ShabbyDoo
A point well taken. Perhaps, after five minutes of not recording, the device
ought to issue an audible warning and turn itself back on if the officer
doesn't hit the "stop" button again?

~~~
Anechoic
That's workable IMO.

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anigbrowl
_At $1,700 per kit and a $99 per officer monthly fee, the system could cost
$2,888 per officer in the first year, or $4 million._

That seems remarkably expensive, though some of that cost may be due to the
difficulties of night recording. On the other hand, it only needs to record
standard definition, and real-time compression and storage in consumer devices
already offer the technology to record a whole shift.

~~~
locopati
Also consider that a lawsuit for police abuse or wrongful arrest can easily
cost millions (based on NYCs regular annual payouts for misdeeds). In that
regard, $4m in exchange for avoiding/winning lawsuits could be a bargain.

