Downside of Police Body Cameras: Your Arrest Hits YouTube

shadowraiths

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Police departments around the country have been moving with unusual speed to equip officers with body cameras to film their often edgy encounters with the public. But the adoption of these cameras has created a new conflict over who has the right to view the recordings.

In Seattle, where a dozen officers started wearing body cameras in a pilot program in December, the department has set up its own YouTube channel, broadcasting a stream of blurred images to protect the privacy of people filmed. Much of this footage is uncontroversial; one scene shows a woman jogging past a group of people and an officer watching her, then having a muted conversation with people whose faces have been obscured.

“We were talking about the video and what to do with it, and someone said, ‘What do people do with police videos?’ ” said Mike Wagers, chief operating officer of the Seattle police. His answer: “They put it on YouTube.”

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NY Times
 
Here is one of their videos. This is likely what police have to put up with on a frequent basis (audio starts after 30 seconds or so:

[video=youtu;LsoTZLUbH7M]http://youtu.be/LsoTZLUbH7M[/video]
 
Imo, the example shown is what LE should not do. The officer has a body cam - but failed to use it to capture 'what he thought he saw, what looked like to him, what might have been ...' - something he repeats many times near the end of what he did capture on video. Missed opportunity imo.

All I see is what the guy that was stopped is saying - harassment. The officer says nothing of value in this stop as far as questions etc, the guy runs, the officer chases him, and lays of charge of obstruction at the end, since nothing was found on him. The guy was very strong in his assertion of his fear when the officer caught up to him - don't manhandle me. I can see where he could have been worried about this from the moment he was stopped.

The guy would have been processed through the arrest system - involving many people, everyone will troop into court at some point - involving many people, because he ran. Then what?

Multiply this by how many times per day across one country - seems like an incredible waste of time and money to me with nothing of substance or value in the end. Jmo.
 
Not only did he run but he was carrying a big wad of cash and NO I.D.

Guess you are going to say that most folks do that? Go for a stroll with a ton of cash, no license/wallet, not to mention yelling at the cop and calling him a racist before he took of running.

And since running is considered a "right" by so many it creates the perfect opportunity to dispose of drugs or whatever else he was carrying.
 
Guessing most folks with a body cam (or phone) would have turned it on - to catch 'the kid' that was present, the hand to hand pass off of something and everything else the officer said happened that can't be seen. No contraband found on the person that ran? Why not?

Maybe this officer will turn his body cam on next time - and give himself the credibility the body cam was meant to do. Just guessing.
 

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