Minneapolis City Council Members Propose That Police Wear Body Cameras

Taser International

A local TV station in Minneapolis appears to have been a bit premature in reporting that the city's police officers will soon be wearing body cameras. Nevertheless, this is a great idea and it should be implemented ASAP. From the Star Tribune:

Three Minneapolis City Council members, including a mayoral candidate, on Thursday pushed for city police use of body cameras — technology that has been in the national limelight in the wake of high-profile police shootings.

But the Police Department quickly rebuffed the proposal, saying more discussion and research are needed before the devices hit the street.

Well, the police should get over it. Cameras worn by cops protect the public from police abuse and officers from false accusations. As the saying goes, it's a win/win.

For more background see my column, "Watched Cops Are Polite Cops."

Comments

[Adam330]

If they have nothing to hide...

[some guy]

More research? What's to research? I'm sure the cops already know how to delete videos when they need to.

[The Late P Brooks]

Recording the behavior of noble law enforcement professionals?

That's worse than slavery.

[Kaptious Kristen]

Unless the cameras "break" or "malfunuction" at just the right wrong time.

[Floridian]

I think if you stream the data to server continuously it would catch a lot of the police misconduct. Most of the animals that attack citizens don't plan it out. It is more an escalation of their authority boner and they would forget about the camera until after the incident. If it was uploaded it would be too late to destroy the camera.

[Adam330]

verizon agrees with this strategy.

[Kaptious Kristen]

How about this, then? Unless the servers "break" or "malfunction" at just the right wrong time.

[Episiarch]

Cameras worn by cops protect the public from police abuse and officers from false accusations.

Sure. And they also capture bad behavior by cops. Which is what they're much more concerned about, and why they don't want them.

[sarcasmic]

Police officer caught on camera frisking man for 'saying hello' is downgraded to admin duties after another video emerges of him bullying kids playing basketball

Philadelphia cop caught on camera knocking basketball hoop over
Officer taken off streets as internal investigation is launched
Latest video comes week after same officer captured telling men 'all you do is weaken the f---ing country' after being stopped in the street

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....-kids.html

Last year, Lt. Jonathan Josey was fired after a YouTube video went viral of him punching a woman in the face and knocking her to the ground.

Lt. Jonathon has since returned to the job.

Videos are no match for the power of the police union.

[sarcasmic]

'My client is not Walter White': Man arrested for possessing crystal meth that turned out to be Jolly Rancher candy sues police

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/new.....olice.html

Several blocks from the sweets emporium, Mr Olatunjiojo and his friend were stopped by Officer Jermaine Taylor and several other officers, who searched the pair.
The complaint filed on behalf of Mr Olatunjiojo claims police told him it was 'only a matter of time before they found something'.
It also claims that Officer Taylor said he carried out a field test to determine if the sweets were narcotics and got a 'positive' result.
Two 'red crystalline rocks of solid material' and four 'blue crystalline rocks of solid material' were sent to the NYPD lab for specialist tests and analysis.
Two days later the results revealed the six 'rocks' were in fact Jolly Rancher sweets, not an illegal drug, Mr Smith said.

Unreal.

[sarcasmic]

Slightly off topic:

Before the beards! New photo reveals Duck Dynasty stars prior to their fame... as fresh faced and clean cut young men

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvs.....-fame.html

[Adam330]

Question for Ron: do you have any sense of how often cruiser dash cams have revealed police abuse? seems from the one-off reports i've seen that they tend to be "malfunctioning," "off," or pointed in the wrong direction when there are abuse allegations. if so, i'd expect the same results here.

[Floridian]

The camera needs to be attached to something the police can't do without. A possible list:
Body armor
M4
Glock
Badge
Taser
Baton

[Adam330]

attaching it to the baton would make for some mighty choppy videos during the baton beatings.

[Floridian]

Look I am an idea man not a details person. That's for the engineers to figure out.

[Adam330]

were you involved in healthcare.gov?

[Bardas Phocas]

New Holiday: Kick a Ginger Kid Day.

http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/artic.....gfield.htm

[anon]

As long as it's male ginger day, cause lets be honest, the female gingers kind of tend to end up absurdly hot.

[sarcasmic]

Ginger without ginger makes me sad.

http://www.sawfirst.com/wp-con.....ved-10.jpg

[Invisible Finger]

WTF? They're blaming South Park for this even though South Park got the idea from news reports.

[OO=======D]

Minneapolis police are the most racist, asshole, bullying cops in the USA.

[LilDebbie]

As a Minneapolis resident who has stared down the barrels of their guns (in my own home, no less!), been arrested (for valid reason), and had dozens of confrontations with officers in my capacity as an activist, I have to say they're actually quite professional and do a very good job at working with the community when the odd thing happens.

Contrast with Boston police who threatened me with arrest for singing on a public sidewalk, and by threaten I mean they had 6 patrol cars and a paddy wagon on hand ready to go. Mistakes happen, like the raid on Vang Khang's house, but despite the fact Mr. Khang shot at the officers, he is not only still alive today, but the MPD issued a public apology to him and his family.

I'll take the MPD over any other major metropolitan police force in America.

[weldfreek]

I work in Minneapolis and if there is a police force in this country that needs these, it's the MPD!

[anon]

Cops will never agree to being monitored while on duty. That's what government does to its subjects citizens, not what subjects do to government.

[Loki]

Another camera to mysteriously malfunction at the most inopportune time, just like their dashboard cameras.

[Invisible Finger]

Let's be honest about exactly what will happen.

UNIFORMED police will be required to wear these. And the number of plainclothes cops will skyrocket and only a handful of "show" cops in uniform will exist to direct traffic.

[sarcasmic]

You're probably right.

[verlighsoncno1975]

Thanks to my father who stated to me about this website, this weblog is actually awesome.

http://farrdesign.com/jerseys/?id=1065