Recording LEO actions

Interesting and (I think) balanced story about recording police officers at http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010-10-15-1Avideocops15_CV_N.htm It discusses several of the things the OC community has seen: documenting egregious abuses or upstanding action by police, useful for proving/defending charges, etc.

"All of our people should be conducting themselves like they are being recorded all the time," says Lt. Robin Larson, who oversees training for the 3,200-officer Broward County, Fla., Sheriff's Office...

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This says it all.

"The proliferation of cheap video equipment is presenting a whole new dynamic for law enforcement," says Jim Pasco, executive director of the Fraternal Order of Police, the nation's largest police union. "It has had a chilling effect on some officers who are now afraid to act for fear of retribution by video. This has become a serious safety issue. I'm afraid something terrible will happen."

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It should only have a chilling effect on behavior that LEOs don't want folks to witness. That behavior should be chilled. We, of course, have a responsibility not to be overly critical. Nobody exercises perfect judgment all the time. Who among us could stand to be videoed in everything we do on the job? Not me.

Also, we should be careful not to fall for the snippet that does not accurately portray the totality of the event. These days, the whole video is available on the Internet somewhere.

eye95 said:

Nobody exercises perfect judgment all the time. Who among us could stand to be videoed in everything we do on the job? Not me.

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I think I could. Certainly I'm not saying I'm perfect and mistake free. But I've had some rather high visibility lines of employment, often times being recorded by security cameras, which I suppose describes a large number of jobs these days.

Police are often expected to record themselves, and it is then supposed to be the right of the public to demand copies of their videos. The corruption comes in when they either fail to run or fail to provide these videos. I have found this type of corruption to be the rule, not the exception, in my locality.

I understand that police have a high stress, high speed job where mistakes can be made in a heartbeat. All that is expected of them is a high degree of skill, combined with an honest effort to do their best, and always be truthful, even when that means admitting to mistakes which happened in the course of an honest effort to do their best, because everyone makes varying degrees of mistakes throughout their entire lifetimes. If a cop can't handle publicly doing that to the extent of videotaping his or her every on the clock action they take, he or she shouldn't be a cop.

There is a great blog about people who are arrested or harassed for photography/videography

CarlosMiller.com

Speaking for myself, I audio record or Qik as many of my LEO interactions as possible.

Michigander said:

I think I could. Certainly I'm not saying I'm perfect and mistake free. But I've had some rather high visibility lines of employment, often times being recorded by security cameras, which I suppose describes a large number of jobs these days...

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Well, goody for you. Put your hand up in the air, reach around backwards, and pat yourself on the back.

Moving on.

eye95 said:

Well, goody for you. Put your hand up in the air, reach around backwards, and pat yourself on the back.

Moving on.

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Wow!!!!

eye95 said:

Well, goody for you. Put your hand up in the air, reach around backwards, and pat yourself on the back.

Moving on.

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Well, I'm NOT being videotaped and I still manage not to operate a home invasion, burglary and kidnapping ring. I manage not to try to kick barmaids to death. I manage not to shoot any unarmed motorcyclists in the back. I also manage not to rob any immigrant owned convenience stores. These are all things which cops have been caught doing on video.

The things which cops don't want to be recorded doing are NOT "mistakes". They're CHOICES. If I CHOOSE to rob a liquor store, I'd sound like a fool if I complained about being caught on video doing it. A cop who unlawfully beats someone sounds like as big a fool for complaining about being caught on video for doing that.

Hmmm? should someone tell everyone who works in any type of Store in this country you are being taped? I know many employers who video all their employees actions. Our public employees should be video taped with or without their knowledge at any time. If I am employed by someone I would have to assume all my actions on my employers time should conform to public scrutiny.