
Body Cameras Haven't Stopped Police Brutality. Here's Why - pmoriarty
https://www.wired.com/story/body-cameras-stopped-police-brutality-george-floyd/
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olliej
Just in the current protests there have been countless cases caught on camera
where officers have:

* Put tape over their badge numbers (in "solidarity with those officers lost to covid-19")

* Literally put tape over their camera lenses - not turn it off, not "forget it", but put tape over it

* Collectively have groups of officers "forget" to wear them (on camera with the camera bracket present with no camera)

This is distinct from the usual cases where an officer is accused of excessive
force and they "forgot to turn it on in the rush", "it mysteriously didn't
record", "the recording was accidentally erased", "they weren't issued one at
the time".

It is remarkable how often the cameras aren't present, or aren't functioning
when an officer is accused of illegal behavior, but always seem to be present
and working when the police need them as evidence of wrong doing.

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MR4D
Simple solution - remove qualified immunity for officers that don’t have
recording equipment running during an enforcement action.

Would solve the problem quickly.

~~~
m463
that's an interesting idea. but how would you deal with legitimate
malfunctions or folks that haven't been issued cameras?

~~~
MR4D
The same way Nasa does. Or airlines.

If you don't have one, you don't go. If your's isn't working, you don't go.

Cameras should have the same checks that guns do before you go out.

And yes, sometimes they break, but that should result in an appropriate error
code.

Finally, a hundred million cars run off computers in the US pretty reliably -
police cameras should run with a similar level of reliability.

If we've authorized people with the use of deadly force then we should take
their cameras seriously.

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austincheney
Summary:

> The devices by themselves, however, don’t create more accountability and
> transparency. It’s how they’re used by police that matters.

Duh. Without policies mandating use and disallowing activation by the officers
the cameras are as good as absent.

