
Body Cameras on Police Can Reduce Use of Force Citizen Complaints - dskhatri
http://online.wsj.com/articles/body-cameras-on-police-can-reduce-use-of-force-citizen-complaints-1408134549
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dang
Arguably a dupe of
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8182002](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8182002).

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mikeh1010
I absolutely support this and hope it spreads. It reduces bad behavior from
all parties and removes the he-said she-said afterwards.

BUT I really hope that there is an expiration date on those tapes. If someone
doesn't insist on that provision when these laws get written, all that street
footage will be the government's to peruse at will forever, that's almost as
scary as mass collection and storage of our emails.

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joshbaptiste
Do officers decide when to turn on/off these cameras? Are the recordings
stored on the device itself? I don't see how cameras would help much if both
questions are true.

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leeny
I used to work with Taser, and last I heard, data was getting uploaded
wirelessly to cloud storage while the device charged. Not sure about when
cameras have to be on/off.

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chrismonsanto
Full text:

More police departments are outfitting policemen with wearable cameras that
tape what officers see as they do their job, providing a record in the
aftermath of incidents like the one in Ferguson, Mo., where a policeman shot
and killed an unarmed black teen.

The cameras have shown promise in reducing incidents involving use of force as
well as citizen complaints, according to new studies. Worn on officers'
lapels, glasses or hats, the cameras can document a more definitive version of
police work.

"If you look at what's happening in Ferguson—basically you have two entirely
different versions of events," said Michael White, a professor of criminology
at Arizona State University. "If that officer was wearing a body-worn camera
we could just go to the tape."

Dr. White, who has studied the use of the cameras, said "there's tremendous
potential to head off these types of incidents from blowing up afterwards."

In a press conference earlier this week, Thomas Jackson, chief of the Ferguson
police department, said the department had only recently been budgeted $5,000
to buy a limited number of dashboard cameras and body cameras for officers.
Mr. Jackson said the department had not yet put them into use at the time of
the shooting but plans on incorporating them into vehicles and on officers
soon.

In the Southern California city of Rialto, the number of citizen complaints
against police dropped from 24 to 3 in the first year that the patrol officers
began wearing cameras in 2012. Use-of-force incidents plummeted from 61 to 25
during the same period.

Tony Farrar, Rialto's chief of police said, "When you talk about putting a
camera on somebody, human nature is going to dictate that you're going mind
your p's and q's and you're going to be on the best behavior."

"At the same, I think it's had an impact on citizens—if they know you're
wearing a camera they too will be on their best behavior," he said.

A 2013 study found that a quarter of 254 U.S. police departments surveyed used
body cameras, according to the Police Executive Research Forum. More than
1,200 law enforcement agencies have purchased wearable cameras from Taser
International Inc., TASR +9.44% with about 80% of the company's camera sales
occurring in the last 12 months, according to Taser spokesman Steve Tuttle.

Big city police departments have begun to use or test body cameras, including
New Orleans, Los Angeles and Las Vegas.

There also has been some resistance in some quarters.

The police union in Las Vegas initially opposed using body cameras, worrying
that the footage could be used in fishing expeditions against officers in
cases where there were no complaints, said Chris Collins, the union's
executive director. The proposal to use cameras had come after rash of police
shootings three years ago. Now, some Las Vegas police have begun wearing them
after the union and the department hammered out guidelines, including when
supervisors are allowed to review footage, Mr. Collins said.

Police body cameras also have sparked some privacy concerns for citizens, but
civil liberties groups back their use with some restrictions.

The American Civil Liberties Union said last year that the cameras have the
"potential to be a win-win, helping protect the public against police
misconduct, and at the same time helping protect police against false
accusations of abuse."

The cameras themselves are only part of the expense—The cameras themselves are
only part of the expense—Taser's cameras range from $399 to $599. Data-storage
and management costs can be significant, according to a recent report by Dr.
White, the Arizona State University professor. "The logistical and resource
issues are especially challenging for those smaller police departments," he
said.

The police department in Mesa, Ariz., did a side-by-side study of 50 officers
wearing cameras and 50 without. The results after eight months: officers with
cameras were subject of 8 citizen complaints while those without had 23.

With citizens regularly capturing incidents with police on their cell phones,
Mesa Police Department spokesman Steve Berry said the department wanted to
have their own video "to tell the whole story or certainly both sides of the
story."

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spiritplumber
Robert Peel would have loved this technology - he says as much in his
Principles of Policing, that he wishes it was possible.

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fail2ban
Wall Street Journal has such a progressive business model

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johansch
Paste the url into google search and open the first link in the results page.

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spiritplumber
Works with nytimes.com as well

You may have to remove stuff after the ? after the .html though.

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iLoch
Paywall. :/

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chris_j
To get round the paywall, do a Google search for "More Officers Wearing Body
Cameras" and then click on the link to the article in the search results.

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iLoch
Ugh, newspapers. Thanks.

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djtriptych
Paywalls on Websites Can Reduce Incidences of Me Reading Them.

