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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: 1) by Anal Pumpernickel on Monday January 12 2015, @07:48AM

    by Anal Pumpernickel (776) on Monday January 12 2015, @07:48AM (#133924)

    He refused to get in the car,
    He refused to submit to handcuffs

    Yes, and? What's your point? At no point did I see anything which justified such an excessive show of force.

    Don't agree with that bargain? Fine. You spend your life in jail.

    I don't recall "resisting arrest" as being big enough of a deal to have to spend your entire life in jail. Even our awful, corrupt system isn't that bad.

    If you understand nothing else in your life, learn that: Fighting with the police will never end well for you.

    As many people have learned when dealing with thugs: Comply or die. So you are correct. But it's not like this specific individual was actually "fighting" in any real sense of the word.

    You will never win any other way.

    Wait, you need to be elected to "win"? History seems to show that you don't need to be elected, but you do usually need some parasitic politicians on your side, at least. Plenty of people who achieved great things were never elected.

    Oh, and Grow UP.

    I won't tell you to grow up, but I will tell you to stop being a bootlicking authoritarian who mindlessly appeals to law and then rants about how you should change the majority's mind as if you're being the least bit insightful. In case it isn't obvious, basically everyone realizes the minority is in trouble unless they have the support of the ignorant, apathetic majority. Good luck getting it.

    Oh, your entire family was unjustly murdered by police, and they got off scott-free? Well, obviously you should get a job, get elected, and then maybe you'll win. In case you didn't realize, it's probably a good thing to get the majority on your side. Oh, and grow up and stop whining about government abuses; who the hell does that in a country that's supposed to be "the land of the free and the home of the brave"? Obviously, no one should, because we don't take too kindly to people who don't mindlessly defend the government here.