SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
David Kravets writes that US Senator Claire McCaskill (D-MO) says police departments nationwide should require their officers to wear body cameras in order to qualify for the hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding they receive each year. "Everywhere I go, people now have cameras," said McCaskill during a question-and-answer session with voters in her home state of Missouri. "And police officers are now at a disadvantage because someone can tape the last part of an encounter and not tape the first part of the encounter. And it gives the impression that the police officer has overreacted when they haven't."
Only a small number of US police departments have outfitted their officers with body cameras, including forces in Fresno, California; Oakland; Rialto, California; Pittsburgh; Salt Lake City; and Cincinnati. A recent study with the Rialto Police Department showed that use-of-force incidents and citizen complaints have been dramatically curtailed since the department began wearing body cams [PDF].
(Score: 5, Informative) by danmars on Thursday August 28 2014, @04:00PM
I disagree with you. Evidence has shown that police cameras make everyone behave better, both police and civilians, and dramatically decrease lawsuits.
Just because someone makes money off something doesn't necessarily mean it's the wrong thing to do. We need to make evidence-based decisions, not motive-based ones.
http://www.informationliberation.com/?id=44427 [informationliberation.com]
(Read the data/statistics and optionally ignore the commentary. The guy seems to have a bit of an axe to grind.)