Here Is What Happened When Police STARTED WEARING CAMERAS In Rialto, California

[Segami]

Last edited Sat Aug 16, 2014, 07:56 PM - Edit history (1)

When police arrest people, they are read their miranda rights. But in the city of Rialto, California, they hear something else added to their interactions with police officers.

You are being videotaped

The police chief of Rialto, California, William Farrar, helped oversee the outfitting of all 66 police officers with cameras for use while they are on duty.

When you put a camera on a police officer, they tend to behave a little better, follow the rules a little better. And if a citizen knows the officer is wearing a camera, chances are the citizen will behave a little better.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/22/us/in-california-a-champion-for-police-cameras.html?_r=2&

This may sound strange, but in reality, it is scientific. The act of observation changes the observed, as first demonstrated on the quantum level by Werner Heisenberg. As reported in Scientific American, even the illusion of observation causes people, on a subconcious level, to behave better. Called the Observer Effect, it has dramatically changed life in Rialto.With an 88% reduction in complaints filed against the police department, and a 60% reduction in police use of force, the city of Rialto has seen a savings in court costs, legal paperwork, and lawsuits. In addition, the video recorded evidence has improved conviction rates. As William Bratton, a former leader within both the New York and Los Angeles police departments, as said,

So much of what goes on in the field is ‘he-said-she-said,’ and the camera offers an objective perspective. Officers not familiar with the technology may see it as something harmful. But the irony is, officers actually tend to benefit. Very often, the officer’s version of events is the accurate version.

While police chief of Los Angeles, Mr. Bratton fought hard to add video cameras to patrol cars. The success of these cameras demonstrates how much benefit they can be. Body cameras take this to the next level, and in departments which have followed the same path as Rialto, the benefits have far outweighed the concerns so far. Even the ACLU, long an advocate for privacy is in agreement with this position. As told by Peter Bibring, a senior lawyer with the A.C.L.U. of Southern California,

Cameras hold real promise for making it easier to resolve complaints against police. They do raise privacy concerns, but ones that can be addressed by strong privacy policies.

cont'


http://www.addictinginfo.org/2014/08/16/cameras-cops/

[MADem]

1. I am a fan of this. I'm also a fan of raising the minimum IQ of police officers.

That argument that "If they're too smart, they'll get bored" doesn't fly IMO. There's plenty to keep a person amused in that kind of community interaction work.

[wildeyed]

6. It is pretty appalling how unintelligent some of the detectives are in my city.

I sat on a jury for a criminal case recently. The police detectives, the ones running the investigation, were not very bright. Which is unfortunate because the job requires higher level reasoning skills. But I guess if you recruit for average or below intelligence out of the box, there is no one who is smart enough to actually run things later.

And I agree with you. There is plenty to engage a higher intellect in the community model of police work. Give smart people a positive goal, i.e. Let's engage with the community in positive ways to make it safer, and some leeway on how to get there and they will come up with all sorts of innovations.

[tecelote]

23. "But I guess if you recruit for average or below intelligence out of the box, there is no one who is

I agree with you but there is another issue. In my town, a deputy I knew, was only getting paid $10.50 an hour and he said when he started it was $6.25.

This may not be true everywhere but, if police are paid that little, it's no wonder we don't get the best.

[wildeyed]

25. The median here is around 50k plus good benefits for a patrol officer.

I am assuming detectives make more. Not going to get rich on that, but it seemed high based on the performance of the detectives I observed. I sure hope it was and isolated problem, otherwise my tax dollars are so wasted

[MADem]

34. In many municipalities, police make time and a half or

even double-time sitting around "guarding" road work crews. They also make extra cash doing security at private venues, often double their usual pay. Police can double their annual salary doing these details some places--my state is one where that happens.

[KittyWampus]

22. My priority after cameras and oversight would be steroids.

Random testing. Zero tolerance even for doctor's orders.

[BrotherIvan]

30. Agreed

They need Olympic-level drug testing. You can see the veins popping out on most of them.

[MADem]

35. If a doctor prescribes steroids, the officer should be placed on

limited duty. There are rare occasions where steroids are indicated, briefly, for medical conditions, but the best move would be to put the officer on desk duty or the property cage until the stuff clears their system.

[exboyfil]

27. The police in my area seem very intelligent

I have known them in church and as my neighbors. My daughter took a Sociology class from a retired police officer. Urban areas may be different though.

[Generic Other]

32. Police need to take on an expanding role

As social workers. That is how they impact troubled communities. They need to be more like PAWS and less like Stormtroopers.

[MADem]

36. All of the positive effects of the "community policing" movement

during the Clinton years were trashed by the BushCo Nahn Wun Wun Terra-Terra-Terra business that caused cops to turn into Delta Force Wannabees.

[Ed Suspicious]

48. +1

[hopemountain]

49. agreed + psychological profiles that

recognize narcissistic sociopaths - who believe the law applies to everyone but them.

[Cha]

2. Such a smart move.. it should catch on Nation Wide! thanks Segami

[Segami]

3. Thanks!

[tularetom]

4. Maybe we should start hiring better police officers

If they're so unqualified that we have to equip them with electronic leashes, maybe we need to reexamine the standards we have set for the people we entrust with public safety.

I wouldn't want any job where my boss could watch me constantly, and I think ultimately these cameras will further discourage bright and creative people from considering careers in law enforcement.

[MADem]

9. That isn't a leash--it protects the officer, too.

It's a job that is performed on the public stage--not unlike the job of an actor in a theater production. People who don't like being on camera would do well to stay away from that kind of work. What the camera is doing is, in essence, taking notes. It's an efficient system--there's no mistaking what people said and how they behaved.

If you work as a cashier, you're on video throughout your workday. Same deal if you're stocking shelves at Walmart or Home Depot. Most modern offices have video surveillance as well. That video of the Navy Yard shooter, for example, was because the building was wired. Teachers are surveilled too--it's becoming very common in most workcenters. The only difference is that the cop is wearing the camera instead of having it hidden in a light fixture or tucked away in a corner.

[bigwillq]

5. I support public servants wearing cameras (nt)

[msanthrope]

7. As a criminal defense attorney, I will say I wholeheartedly support this. nt

[cstanleytech]

43. What about adding a speaker with a button to it that when pressed

automatically reads out the miranda rights?

[nikto]

56. Good idea.

[msanthrope]

60. Awesome....but most Miranda is done at the station, in written form. nt

[cstanleytech]

62. Ya but if they do this it becomes part of the official record plus they

could also rig it so as soon as its pressed it sends a live feed to the station as backup incase their is a problem with the patrol vehicles recording.

[libdem4life]

8. It's called accountability. I think the incredible statistics above speak volumes.

I'd gladly pay 1/2 cent local tax to fund them.

Edit: It would work as a real detriment to the citizen, as well.

[lunasun]

26. +1. All good points

[brer cat]

10. K&R I support this. nt

[ReRe]

11. K&R

I likey, Sagami. Thanks for the article!

[stonecutter357]

12. K&R

[VanGoghRocks]

13. Here's why folks should not pin all their hopes on cameras and other

hi-tech doo-hickies and thing-a-ma-jigs:

A supervisor in the Southeast Division noticed one day that many of the cameras in patrol cars were missing antennas, according to the Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Police Department investigators looked into it and discovered that a lot of the antennas had been removed from patrol cars. The numbers of missing antennas were especially high in the division, which includes neighborhoods like Watts, Jordan Downs and Nickerson Gardens. These are the neighborhoods where residents' distrust of the LAPD runs high and where there are more likely to be abuse-of-power complaints—in other words, the neighborhood where the cameras and recording devices would be most useful at capturing or heading off the next Rodney King beating. Out of 160 antennas installed in the division (and there are two per car), 72 had been removed. There were twenty antennas missing from other divisions.

http://laist.com/2014/04/08/lapd_officers_in_south_la_dont_like.php

SoCal Beachbum and pedantic douchenozzle here: "Rialto"

[sulphurdunn]

18. The solution to that problem

is to root the criminal elements out of the LAPD.

[VanGoghRocks]

19. We're going to need a bigger camera! :)

Last edited Sat Aug 16, 2014, 11:01 AM - Edit history (1)

[JoeyT]

51. The solution to that is a zero tolerance policy for tampering with the cameras.

The first time you remove a camera, you're gone, and you get a bad enough reference that the next police department thinking of hiring you knows that when you inevitably beat some random person down and they get sued, there will be a trail showing you're exactly the kind of person that's into that kind of thing, and they hired you anyway.

[VanGoghRocks]

54. I like this, but wish to point out that in Los Angeles, the cameras were disabled

in such a way that, while it could reasonably be ascertained that they had been deliberately disabled, it was impossible to know who had disabled which patrol car camera.

I actually called my councilperson's office (Mike Bonin) to complain about this and sent several emails. Got no response whatsoever to the voicemail I left nor to the emails I sent. Needless to say, I won't be voting for Bonin's re-election when he's up in 2017 and may even get off my duff to work for any opponent of his that runs to his left. I've sadly concluded that politicians really don't give a shit about our opinions unless we have a lot of $$$ to contribute. "Equality before the law" is just this advertising slogan they trot out to us rubes when they need our votes.

[drm604]

14. This is a fantastic idea. It seems like this could really make a difference.

There needs to be funding for this nationwide. If the government won't fund it sufficiently then we could have fundraisers, maybe Kickstarter or IndieGoGo campaigns. I'd probably contribute something for my local police to do this.

[OnlinePoker]

15. They should be diverting the money from the military hardware to these.

A hell of a lot cheaper in the long run.

[drm604]

17. Great idea!

Hopefully they haven't already spent it all.

Another thought: Municipalities' insurance providers should start giving discounts for departments that do this. It could cut down on both real and false claims against officers.

[Vattel]

16. wow

[PasadenaTrudy]

20. *Rialto* n/t

[Eleanors38]

21. A selfie society is a polite society.

[valerief]

24. Wow, impressive statistics. So those cops were real assholes before?

Their public were assholes before? Whatever. Sounds like they're not beating/killing innocent people like in other police districts.

Love that the cameras are being used all because of Walt White. You know people will think that when they see the name Heisenberg.

[Travis_0004]

53. cameras make police and citizens more polite

It also cuts down on false complaints since they can pull the tape.

[JDPriestly]

28. Robert Burns:

O wad some Power the giftie gie us
To see oursels as ithers see us!
It wad frae mony a blunder free us,
An' foolish notion:
What airs in dress an' gait wad lea'e us,
An' ev'n devotion!

http://www.robertburns.org/works/97.shtml

I was raised on that poem. It's called To A Louse.

Teaches us to look at ourselves from outside as well as from inside. Teaches humility.

So does a camera on a policeman. The camera is not an invasion of privacy because it is not constant and because the moments that you spend with a police officer are not private. Keeps both the officer and you calm and honest.

I'd like to see fewer cameras in most places and more on police officers. Protects the officer and the suspects as well as the general public.

[Iggo]

29. Rialto.

[LittleBlue]

31. Yes, this is a good solution. We need to get the message out

to cut through all noise.

[cer7711]

33. NRA-types, Take Note:

A filmed society is a polite society.

You may need to revise an old slogan.

[kemah]

37. It also forces the citizens to respond more politely.

I worked in a school district that would video tape school fights. Once the cameras would show up, the students would all scatter. They could not deny fighting if it is caught on tape.

[nikto]

57. Impacted schools NEED cameras, IMO

See my post below...

[Lex]

38. ** This protects citizens and officers **

That's a good thing.

[paulkienitz]

39. I've been in favor of this for a long time.

Even before it was quite feasible I was looking forward to when it would be. Glad to see it's working as well as I hoped it would.

[sabrina 1]

40. I bet it's saved some lives too. Wilson eg, might have thought twice before gunning down an

unarmed teen if he knew he was on video and if he didn't work for a Dept that allows officers to write their own reviews of their behavior.

[intaglio]

41. In another thread I pointed out that, for some officers, cameras "break"

From the Albuquerque Journal

Manufacturer can’t say why officer’s lapel camera didn’t record
Albuquerque Police Department officer Jeremy Dear’s lapel video turned on and off numerous times the morning he shot and killed 19-year-old Mary Hawkes, according to a report released by Taser International Inc., which makes the cameras.

But it’s unclear why. The report states that investigators don’t know if Dear powered it off or if the cable disconnected. None of the shooting was recorded, according to the report, despite the fact that the camera was turned on at some points.

Jeremy Dear shot and killed Hawkes in the early morning of April 21. Police said she was a suspected car thief and that she pulled a gun on officers after a short pursuit near Zuni and Wyoming. APD received criticism for the lack of video evidence, and Dear has a history of not recording his encounters with the public, according to his personnel file.

emphasis mine

The excuse given by Deputy Chief William Roseman of Albuquerque PD is that the cables are designed to break. This completely ignores the point that the cable did not break but rather, somehow, disconnected and reconnected.

Then there is the other problem which actually occurred in Ferguson sometimes, entirely by chance of course, the wrong recording is saved

From the Daily Beast

The Day Ferguson Cops Were Caught in a Bloody Lie

/snip

Indisputable evidence of what transpired in the cell might have been provided by a surveillance camera, but it turned out that the VHS video was recorded at 32 times normal speed.

“It was like a blur,” Schottel told The Daily Beast on Wednesday. “You couldn’t see anything.”

The blur proved to be from 12 hours after the incident anyway. The cops had saved the wrong footage after Schottel asked them to preserve it.

Thanks to justiceischeap for the OP where I found this second report

[cstanleytech]

42. I wonder if they should consider making the cameras on the patrol cars more visible then?

After all anything that helps calm everyone down and behave better might help.

[Uncle Joe]

44. Kicked and recommended for common sense and logic.

Thanks for the thread, Segami.

[Enthusiast]

45. The jury is in, the cameras are effective at curbing law enforcement abuses.

K&R!

[McCamy Taylor]

46. This sounds like a no-brainer. Evidence presented in court would have video back up.

[Chemisse]

47. It's hysterical that quantum theory is used here to support the use of cameras by cops!

I really don't think that the behavior of subatomic particles is at all related to that of people who know they are being observed.

That said, having cops wear cameras is a great idea!!

[NickB79]

50. Police in many MN cities are now wearing these as well

Duluth, Minneapolis, Burnsville.

http://www.minnpost.com/politics-policy/2014/01/police-departments-minnesota-focus-body-cameras

[Laelth]

52. k&r for exposure. n/t

-Laelth

[nikto]

55. As a retired teacher...

I must say I really wanted a camera in my classroom to help calm-down my most disrupted classes.

Violators, whether cops or kids, are less-likely to cross-the-line when on-camera.



I would have loved to have one in my classroom.
Never got it though.

[Stellar]

58. Whoa, remarkable!

[blkmusclmachine]

59. 10 years until the Courts turn this against the general population, mandating wearing cameras/mic's

at all times while out in public.

[bigtonka]

61. Bravo