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posted by LaminatorX on Sunday January 11 2015, @10:18AM   Printer-friendly
from the watch-this dept.

Lily Hay Newman reports that the LAPD has ordered 3,000 Tasers that, when discharged, will automatically activate cameras on officers' uniforms, which will create visual records of incidents at a time of mounting concern about excessive force by U.S. law enforcement officers. The new digital Taser X26P weapons record the date, time and duration of firing, and whether Taser wires actually strike suspects and how long the thousands of volts of electricity pulse through them. “This technology gives a much better picture of what happens in the field,” says Steve Tuttle. The idea of using a Taser discharge as a criterion for activating body cams is promising, especially as more and more police departments adopt body cams and struggle to establish guidelines for when they should be on or off. Police leadership—i.e., chiefs and upper management—is far more supportive of the technology and tends to view body-worn cameras as a tool for increasing accountability and reducing civil liability. On the other hand, the patrol officer culture is concerned that the technology will be an unfair intrusion into their routine activities—for instance, it might invite over-managing minor policy violations. "In addition to these new Taser deployments, we plan to issue a body-worn camera and a Taser device to every officer," says Police Chief Charlie Beck. "It is our goal to make these important tools available to every front line officer over the next few years."

 
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  • (Score: 2) by theluggage on Sunday January 11 2015, @05:38PM

    by theluggage (1797) on Sunday January 11 2015, @05:38PM (#133736)

    And policy violations by law enforcement are a serious issue, 'minor' or not.

    Cops have pointy-haired bosses too, remember. I think the sort of "minor policy violations" they are worrying about are helping an old person cross the road (if there's an accident while you are helping them they could sue), spending 6 minutes on a 5 minute bathroom break, criticising the management in a private conversation with your partner or not ticketing a driver who's left rear indicator lamp was not quite the right shade of amber, and other indications of unacceptable humanity. I think its only fair to restrict access to bodycam recordings to serious complaints. (Of course, the same principle should apply to "big brother" police surveillance of the public).

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