
Seattle Police Will Hire Programmer and Prolific Records Requester Tim Clemans - deegles
http://www.thestranger.com/blogs/slog/2015/04/20/22079865/seattle-police-will-hire-programmer-and-prolific-records-requester-tim-clemans#
======
ars
This is what every activist needs to do.

Unhappy at how a government agency works? Apply for a job and change it from
within. Agencies are made of people.

I saw a story a while ago about how the CIA was having trouble finding people
to hire, because of Snowden.

This is backwards! People should be jumping to work there and make the place
better.

For example, Zoos used to be quite different from how they are run today. What
changed? People who loved animals figured it would be a neat place to work.
Over time zoos have changed to conservation and public education oriented
places, instead of public exhibition places.

~~~
cheald
> People should be jumping to work there and make the place better.

You don't just get to sign up to work for the CIA and make things better -
you'll spend _years_ doing damn distateful things before you're ever in a
position to affect positive change, assuming you haven't been properly
corrupted by then. If you refuse to toe the line, then you'll find yourself
fired or pressed with criminal charges.

Selling your soul for a small chance to change the CIA seems quite the price
to pay.

~~~
honksillet
For the past 2 administrations the CIA has had a terrible record of trying to
punish whistleblowers. I agree that people inside the CIA need to speak up,
but at the highest levels, people who have tried just that have had their
careers ruined.

~~~
pekk
I don't think we were talking about infiltrating the CIA for the purpose of
dumping all its secrets, were we?

~~~
pjc50
The organisation will not change without external pressure. External pressure
cannot be applied without knowing what it is doing. Knowing what it is doing
is illegal. The organisation will not change.

------
marincounty
I was stopped for essentially walking with books at 12:30 p.m. I was
questioned for at least 15 minutes. He asked the weirdest questions. He looked
through my books, and questioned why I had a old magazine on knitting. I
actually told him why because I was kind of in shock over the nature of
questions. I thought maybe he thought I was stealing mail? I told him the
magazine is from the 80's, and didn't even have postage on it. Officer, "No--I
was just wondering why a guy would be interested in knitting?" (The magazine
was for a friend, and bought in a used book store)

I thought about pulling out my iPhone and tapeing the encounter.

I then realized the cop had his holster unbuckled, and no one was around, and
he explicitly told me to keep my hands visable at all times.

I'm not anti law enforcement. I'm just tired of being pulled over for no
reason. Tired of expensive, dubious tickets, and courts that always side with
the Officer.

This has forced me to buy two dash cams(one in truck as backup--they are
$15.00/unit from China, so I ordered two.) and I'm working on an app that
turns on the smartphone video when ever the word "Officer" is mentioned.

The scenerio I envision is I am walking down the street with the smartphone in
my shirt pocket/jacket pocket(near enough to pick up my command of voicing
"Officer" to wake up dormant phone, and turn on the video/audio app.

If there is already an app out there, could someone point me in the right
direction?

~~~
zacharycohn
I didn't realize until now, but phones are currently always passively
listening for "okay Google" or "hey Siri." Look into whether you can tap into
that.

------
danso
> He'll make $22.60 an hour and start on May 6. If all goes well, Clemans will
> stay on as a full-time staffer.

Uh, seriously? This is less than what high school kids routinely get paid to
do HTML ($30/hr, and that was in the 90s)

~~~
jrbancel
It is ridiculous, especially considering how well SPD officers are being
paid... [http://www.seattle.gov/policejobs/benefits-and-
salary/salary](http://www.seattle.gov/policejobs/benefits-and-salary/salary)

~~~
lsiebert
Yet, he developed a fair bit of software for this free already. Sometimes
people do things for the public good. Plus you know he's going to be hired
somewhere else after this if he wants to, and if he owns the software he
develops, he can make bank.

~~~
williamstein
I know Tim personally, since he contributed for years to the SageMath software
project while he was in high school here in Seattle. He is an extremely
sincere person, who care intensely about things (like open source software),
and has little interest or motivation related to money. The potential that he
could have any impact that could improve the terrible police/people
interactions even a little in Seattle is I'm sure all he cares about. I very
much wish him the best.

~~~
bch
Whether or not he cares about his bank balance doesn't change what fair
compensation is. If you frame this as "you can donate $10 to your favorite
cause, or $50", the rate might seem more meaningful.

------
theophrastus
This is nigh Sun_Tzu/genius of Seattle's creative (female) chief of police: if
there is a capable pest working against you, invite them in, and have them
work for you.

~~~
jsprogrammer
What does gender have to do with anything?

Disclosure will progress towards real-time: gathered not only by officers, but
by any other person as well. Props to Seattle for being slightly ahead of the
curve.

~~~
mattgrice
Seattle PD is under a DOJ consent decree because of a pattern of excessive
force and discriminatory policing. She is perceived to be an outsider brought
in to disrupt the good old boys' club. Her status as an outsider is very
relevant in this context, and female police officers have a MUCH better track
record on use of excessive force.

Source:
[http://womenandpolicing.com/PDF/2002_Excessive_Force.pdf](http://womenandpolicing.com/PDF/2002_Excessive_Force.pdf)

------
thirdreplicator
You're awesome Tim! You've got one more fan!

