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posted by Fnord666 on Sunday March 12 2017, @11:06PM   Printer-friendly
from the shooting-and-shooting dept.

TechDirt reports

Taser, the company, gets a lot of cop love because of its titular product, which is deployed (too) frequently to subdue arrestees. It probably doesn't get as much love for its body cameras, especially since it's already wired one line to sync footage with Taser deployment.

Its cameras are going to get even less love now. Taser's latest product looks to ensure no shooting goes unrecorded.

To ensure accountability during police encounters, Axon, Taser's police body camera division, has announced a small sensor for gun holsters that can detect when a gun is drawn and automatically activate all nearby cameras. The sensor, Signal Sidearm, is part of a suite of products aimed at reducing the possibility that officers will fail to or forget to switch on their cameras during encounters with the public.

This isn't a welcome development for cops who'd rather have every shooting/killing go unrecorded. And it's probably not going to be picked up by many departments as it's an aftermarket add-on that serves the singular purpose of accountability.

[...] Say what you will about Taser's taser, but its camera division (Axon) continues to make strides towards better law enforcement accountability. In addition to the gun-out, camera-on clip, Axon has also made body/dash cameras that begin recording when squad car doors are opened and/or the cruiser's lights are turned on.


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  • (Score: 2) by Murdoc on Monday March 13 2017, @12:04AM (5 children)

    by Murdoc (2518) on Monday March 13 2017, @12:04AM (#478255) Homepage

    How long until police figure out how to bypass this thing? You know, like radar detectors (ironically)?
    I do hope they can make these things too hard to bypass though. At some point.

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  • (Score: 2) by frojack on Monday March 13 2017, @12:30AM (4 children)

    by frojack (1554) on Monday March 13 2017, @12:30AM (#478261) Journal

    Are you totally sure that they want to find a way to bypass it?

    My bet is that for every cop this feature incriminates there will be ten cops it exonerates.

    But I'm guessing that won't fit your narrative.

    --
    No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
    • (Score: 2) by Murdoc on Monday March 13 2017, @12:36AM (1 child)

      by Murdoc (2518) on Monday March 13 2017, @12:36AM (#478266) Homepage

      Sorry, my narrative? What narrative is that? I was merely speculating, wondering actually, how long it would take for some cops to figure out a way around this, as clearly there have been cases where cops do not want to be recorded doing certain things. I made no suggestion as to the number or proportion of police that would do so, as you did. I think that you are reading too much into what I said.

      • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 13 2017, @12:40AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 13 2017, @12:40AM (#478268)

        > Sorry, my narrative? What narrative is that?

        Frojack is an idiot savant at projection.
        Frojack is very fond of his narrative and so he assumes everybody else has one too.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 13 2017, @02:17AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 13 2017, @02:17AM (#478292)

      My bet is that for every cop this feature incriminates there will be ten cops it exonerates.

      Maybe you're right. I had a good laugh here, though, just imagining how young I was the last time I had this amount of faith in authorities.

      I'm sure your explanation of why, if this were true, cops still try to sabotage these things will be interesting. Just please be more creative than pretending they're stupid.

    • (Score: 4, Insightful) by hemocyanin on Monday March 13 2017, @05:21AM

      by hemocyanin (186) on Monday March 13 2017, @05:21AM (#478316) Journal

      Without cameras, every cop is exonerated. The ONLY way they get in trouble, is being taped being their usual selves, so yeah, I'm sure cops hate this idea.