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Sunday, November 30, 2014

Cops and bodycams


Some civil libertarians are demanding that cops wear bodycams. In general, I think that's a good idea. However, I have some technical questions.

How or where is the footage stored? Is it stored in the camera, or is it wireless? Is there a live feed? 

Who has custody of the footage? The police dept? Or will this be contracted out to independent, private firms?

The reason I ask is that if the police, or the police alone, have custody of the footage, then they can preserve evidence in cases where that benefits the officer, but "accidentally" lose, erase, or edit, evidence in cases where the officer was in the wrong. 

5 comments:

  1. What we need is a high-tech global police state overseen by a few high-ranking regional administrators who report up to a benevolent genius-leader, oh and everyone needs to receive an official identifying mark in order to participate in normal society - such as buying and selling. Just think of all the problems this would solve. Why hasn't this been thought of already?

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  2. The issue with body cams is precisely the issue that already exists with patrol car cams. Consider the Marcus Jeter incident: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tMoTfLykVcA&list=LLSQhgDpy8ETV37VfN86Zusg&index=10

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  3. "How or where is the footage stored? Is it stored in the camera, or is it wireless? Is there a live feed?"

    Police bodycams are essentially "GoPro" cameras, but constructed to be impact-resistant. The footage is stored on SD cards (which these days, can store 18 hours+ of 720p video for a neglible price).

    "Who has custody of the footage? The police dept? Or will this be contracted out to independent, private firms?"

    Great question. Both options have their plusses and minuses. This document has some guidelines: http://www.justice.gov/iso/opa/resources/472014912134715246869.pdf

    Furthermore, audit trails and hardcoded video timestamps can greatly reduce the prevalance of tampering with the video. It's not an absolutely perfect solution, but it's a huge step in the right direction.

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  4. Steve said:
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    The reason I ask is that if the police, or the police alone, have custody of the footage, then they can preserve evidence in cases where that benefits the officer, but "accidentally" lose, erase, or edit, evidence in cases where the officer was in the wrong.
    ---

    This already happens. Think Lois Lerner.

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  5. One of the issues is freedom of information act requests which are extremely costly to comply with.

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