"When cops in a Rialto, California were forced to wear cameras, their use of force dropped by over..."

? When cops in a Rialto, California were forced to wear cameras, their use of force dropped by over two-thirds. Additionally, the officers who were not made to wear the cameras used force twice as much as those who did. This strongly suggests the majority of the time police use force is unnecessary. In other words, the majority of the time these officers used force they were simply committing acts of violence which they don?t feel comfortable committing if it?s captured on film. From The New York Times: HERE?S a fraught encounter: one police officer, one civilian and anger felt by one or both. Afterward, it may be hard to sort out who did what to whom. Now, some police departments are using miniaturized video cameras and their microphones to capture, in full detail, officers? interactions with civilians. The cameras are so small that they can be attached to a collar, a cap or even to the side of an officer?s sunglasses. High-capacity battery packs can last for an extended shift. And all of the videos are uploaded automatically to a central server that serves as a kind of digital evidence locker. William A. Farrar, the police chief in Rialto, Calif., has been investigating whether officers? use of video cameras can bring measurable benefits to relations between the police and civilians. Officers in Rialto, which has a population of about 100,000, already carry Taser weapons equipped with small video cameras that activate when the weapon is armed, and the officers have long worn digital audio recorders. But when Mr. Farrar told his uniformed patrol officers of his plans to introduce the new, wearable video cameras, ?it wasn?t the easiest sell," he said, especially to some older officers who initially were ?questioning why ?big brother? should see everything they do." He said he reminded them that civilians could use their cellphones to record interactions, ?so instead of relying on somebody else?s partial picture of what occurred, why not have your own?" he asked. ?In this way, you have the real one." Last year, Mr. Farrar used the new wearable video cameras to conduct a continuing experiment in his department, in collaboration with Barak Ariel, a visiting fellow at the Institute of Criminology at the University of Cambridge and an assistant professor at Hebrew University. ?
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Rialto, CA Police Made to Wear Cameras, Use of Force Drops by Over Two-Thirds - informationliberation (via aboriginalpressnews)

There?s a shock? Accountability sucks, huh?

(via aka14kgold)

I like this idea a lot.

(via stfuconservatives)

Seattle is currently in deep shit with federal monitoring because of excessively violent cops with racist tendencies. I would love for the federal monitor to make these cameras a requirement.

(via elizabitchez)

we were just talking about this today (neither of us could remember where it was except ?somewhere in California" but it was probably Rialto) and they also found that the rate of civilian complaints just went through the fucking floor ? because cops weren?t doing stuff that drew complaints, surprise surprise

I get really worried sometimes about increased federal monitoring of various things and I don?t want there to just be cameras everywhere like in some countries, but there?s a difference between cameras on the street corner and cameras that are there to ensure you are doing your fucking job properly ? if you?re a cop then your employers (i.e.,?us) have a right to know what you?re doing on the clock

now we all know that internal investigations don?t amount to shit but even if cops ever got punished for the shit they did, it doesn?t actually fix what happened ? someone still got brutalized. this is prevention.

(via cumaeansibyl)

Source: http://humanthesaurus.tumblr.com/post/56980956676

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