
Axon [formerly TASER] Offers Free Body Cameras for Every Police Officer in U.S - pitaa
http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/axon-offers-free-body-cameras-for-every-police-officer-in-the-us-300435012.html
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jMyles
Two important devils in the details:

1) As I understand it, this isn't anything like a charitable act. The cameras
are free; they sell the cloud storage and other services. Which is great! A
fine strategy. But let's not mistake it for public service.

2) (more importantly) the specific features and details of police cameras are
probably more important than those of any other piece of police equipment. If
individual officers can turn them off at a crucial moment, then all cops will
be _pressured to do so_ in order to cover up perjury by the bad cops. This is
how bad apples spoil the bunch.

If, on the other hand, the cameras cannot be turned off at that crucial
moment, and the data cannot be hidden from public view via a simple FOIA/FOIL
or similar request, this will hugely _empower_ the good and honest cops who
can now say, "Sorry bud, I can't turn my camera off and I can't hide the data.
You're going to have to own up to what you did."

That small detail can be the difference between a functional, mature civil
society and a dystopia.

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pitaa
I was curious what they normally charge for the device/service; according to a
price list[0] I found from last year, the body cams are $399, the docking
stations are $249, and the Evidence.com license is $948/yr (though I'm not
familiar with the industry, so I have no idea if anyone actually pays the list
prices).

[0]
[http://www.nationalipa.org/Contracts/151089/Pricing_2016.pdf](http://www.nationalipa.org/Contracts/151089/Pricing_2016.pdf)

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stuaxo
Not sure I like sharing my last name with the company formally known as TASER
:/

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Eridrus
This seems like Taser's response after being massively underbid in NYC.

