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The Minneapolis police chief, Janee Harteau, resigned on Friday at the mayor’s request, less than a week after one of the city’s officers fatally shot an unarmed Australian woman who had called 911 for help.
Mayor Betsy Hodges said in a statement that “I’ve lost confidence in the chief’s ability to lead us further” and that “it is clear that she has lost the confidence of the people of Minneapolis as well.”
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At a press conference on Friday night about the chief’s departure, protesters interrupted Ms. Hodges and called on her to resign, as well. “Bye, bye, Betsy,” they chanted when she tried to continue speaking.
Minneapolis chief of police Janeé Harteau resigned Friday, forced out by the city’s mayor nearly a week after a police officer fatally shot an Australian woman who had called 911.
The case has drawn international scrutiny and criticism, and highlighted the limitations of police-worn body cameras.
Mayor Betsy Hodges, who has previously called the lack of body-camera footage of the shooting “unacceptable,” said in a statement, “I’ve lost confidence in the Chief’s ability to lead us further.”
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The mayor has been sharply critical of the fact that even though every patrol officer in Minneapolis wears a body camera, neither officer present when Damond was fatally shot late Saturday activated his, preventing authorities from having potentially key footage of what happened.“We have put too much time, money, and effort into them to have them fail us when we needed them most,” Hodges wrote of the body cameras. “That cannot happen again.”
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Harteau is at least the fourth chief of a major police department forced out in recent years amid controversy over a deadly police shooting or a fatal encounter with officers.The fatal shooting has provoked international outrage and continued to resonate in Australia. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull called it “a shocking killing” and said Australian officials are seeking closure for her family.
I feel something is wrong if police and city officials need Australians to be shot to start cleaning their act.
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Background - The Guardian:
Damond, 40, called police after hearing a possible sexual assault taking place in an alley behind her Minneapolis home in what has been described as the safe, middle-class neighbourhood of Fulton.
The police audio begins with the description of a “female screaming behind the building”, believed to be what Damond told the dispatcher in her initial 911 call.
Damond, dressed in her pyjamas, reportedly approached the driver’s side window of the police car when it arrived in the alley and an officer shot across his partner at Damond more than once from the passenger seat.
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The Washington Post reported Damond is one of at least 524 people fatally shot by police in the US this year and and the fifth in Minnesota.The Minneapolis-St Paul area is still reeling from the acquittal last month of a police officer who shot dead a man, Philando Castile, during a traffic stop while Castile’s girlfriend livestreamed the horrifying incident.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by deadstick on Saturday July 22 2017, @01:18PM (15 children)
No, just always on with a shift's worth of memory aboard. With a time-limited, recorded suspend feature for the crapper.
(Score: 5, Informative) by Runaway1956 on Saturday July 22 2017, @01:26PM (3 children)
Yes, this! ^
If the camera only switches on when the officer switches it, and/or the gun is drawn, then the officer is free to commit all kinds of crazy crimes, then only record the final moments when he guns his victim down. In terms that most all of us can understand, that would mean that you can go into a bar, and insult some drunk's geneology, cast aspersions on his sexual preferences, business ethics, and whatever else it takes to get the drunk to swing at you. At the last moment, when you're sure he's going to swing, THEN you turn on the camera to document that you acted in "self defense".
The camera needs to record beginning of shift to end of shift, and the cop should have no way to turn it off.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 22 2017, @05:16PM
This is also how most academic research works. They do XXX, then at the end get the result that "proves" the reason for the grant was justified and report on just that.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 22 2017, @05:30PM (1 child)
And then there is the question of access to the recordings...
(Score: 2) by Reziac on Sunday July 23 2017, @05:26AM
Automatic upload to a secure cloud that requires two-key access, with one key in possession outside the chain of command. Not perfect, but should be good enough anywhere that cellphones work (remember with the right app, they can already do auto-upload).
And who shrank the font in just the comment box?
And there is no Alkibiades to come back and save us from ourselves.
(Score: 2) by hemocyanin on Saturday July 22 2017, @01:59PM (10 children)
A 200 gb microSD card is about $80 at Newegg and would hold about 40 hours of 720p video. It would be very easy to capture everything, and then decide after the fact to keep it if something eventful happened.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Saturday July 22 2017, @02:17PM (9 children)
And how is the power consumption vs battery?
Got to power the image sensor which sometimes need various weird voltage levels, digital compression and storage. In some cases mechanical zoom lenses.
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday July 22 2017, @02:39PM (1 child)
"...mechanical zoom lenses' , Really try making up some more power requirements so this cannot happen how about full local facial recognition requiring a cluster to be mounted in a van that trails after each police car? connected by ethernet I mean how do you expect our heros to function in such circumstance?
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Saturday July 22 2017, @04:10PM
Don't forget the hot coffee warmer and donut glazer.
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 1) by tftp on Saturday July 22 2017, @05:57PM (2 children)
Other people already mentioned "zoom lenses", but in general note that police officers are rarely more than a few yards away from their vehicles - in which they can carry a ton of spare batteries, if need be.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Saturday July 22 2017, @09:30PM (1 child)
But do these devices use motor driven mechanical zoom lenses or not?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday July 24 2017, @09:22PM
Likely not - they must not focus just on a small part of the image.
(Score: 1) by In hydraulis on Sunday July 23 2017, @05:26AM (3 children)
I lol-ed.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Sunday July 23 2017, @06:07AM (2 children)
Have a look at CCD voltage requirement.
(Score: 1) by In hydraulis on Sunday July 23 2017, @05:10PM (1 child)
Aside from CMOS being better for recording video due to much lower heat produced--
Voltage divider. Literally two resistors connected in series.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Sunday July 23 2017, @05:13PM
Then you get a current dependent voltage ie no regulation. And conversion losses.