Body Cams on Cops? A good idea?

I would have loved wearing a body cam back in the days when I worked the street! It would have mediated some angst I had with the administration. Especially when the bad guys declared I or one of my fellow deputies I was working with "abused" the bad guy and/or deprived them of their rights. But then again, that was back in the day when most folks who went to jail knew what they were doing would lead them to at least a night in jail, knew they were going to jail and fessed up to the fact that they deserved to go to jail. Back then most of those folks accepted their fate. For the most part they knew the rules and respected the rules well enough to know that if they violated those rules they were going to go to jail. Fights, they happened. Sometimes they evolved to "difficult arrests", "face plants", "leg sweeps", mace/pepper spray, nightsticks, hair holds, or worse... and if those tactics were used they were only employed when necessary. I've never had any of those folks file a lawsuit against me or any of my compadres for that matter, though I have had them threaten to sue me until they sobered up or otherwise realized their lawsuit wouldn't stand a snowball's chance in hell in court.

It's funny how this whole "body cam" thing that these folks wished for and got is backfiring in their faces . They've finally realized these body cams are providing very good evidence against them and they were instrumental in insisting that this very productive and accurate law enforcement tool was provided to the law enforcement community. I personally thank them for their contribution to ensure our law enforcement community is equipped with and trained in the use of equipment that will provide accurate, honest, timely and professionally collected law enforcement information that, in the past was rarely collected.We, the taxpayers are providing the video/audio recording equipment, the training associated with it, good, trained, experienced police officers and their protective gear to use and effectively apply it and now the good evidence that leads to acquittal or conviction to our law enforcement so we can ensure all of our constitutional rights are being fully represented, respected and protected.

If you ask me the use of these cams provide us, the taxpayers a great return on our investment!

It's a wonderful idea. Keep the cameras. Insist the officers review the footage and audio recordings of their respective "incidents" that were recorded and insist those officers use that information in any of their reports to provide a more accurate depiction of the event(s) that prompted their response and subsequently occurred during the officers response, including any arrest(s) made.

The lawyers and social activists like black lives matter, etc. want these body cams to ensure proper policing and public safety. As a citizen, I thank them for that. Many law enforcement officers wear them today as a result and as a former cop I wish I had the opportunity to wear one throughout my career as well. Let's continue to use these body cams to ensure the arrests made are necessary and proper arrests and the accuracy of the reporting process is enhanced, at least.

Let's err in favor of more accurate reporting and more effective law enforcement.


IMHO

More About Terror and the European Union

But in essence this is more about the state of our global security and societal sanity. That given, let's get started...

Members of the European Union have clipped the wings of their existing Intelligence agencies, respectively to the level of borderline "inept-ness". Frustration runs rampant within the rank and file of the law enforcement and intelligence agencies. At least, that's my perspective.

To put it into very general terms, these agencies are designed to gather information that might be counter productive to their nation's (at least) or their multi national region's (at best) best interests. That's a very simplistic take on their duties but it should suffice for the sake of this discussion.

The forbidden word "profile" and the verboten yet productive practice of "profiling" pukes, terrorists, bad guys, WHATEVER... has, well, rendered the local, regional, national and global intelligence industry AND the respective law enforcement industry's capabilities to detect and prevent crimes before they happen, ineffective.

I admit AND agree there should be a line drawn when "profiling" individuals, groups, activities gets out of hand but don't take the tool out of the tool box. You cripple the industry, you cripple our very security when you do. Punish those who knowingly abused their authority. Educate those who were truly ignorant.

Rather than prohibit the tool to be used by the industry simply teach the apprentice or the journeyman how to use that tool properly, legally, effectively and let them do their job!

Law enforcement and Intelligence agencies simply can't do their jobs when they can't incorporate the very statistics their respective industries gather and provide into their respective "investigations"... the historical data at least. They can't effectively complete their tasks at hand and they can't effectively protect those who they're sworn to protect.

In essence our global "society" has diluted our intelligence and law enforcement organizations to the point where they've become nothing more than a re-active clean-up crew (at best). Responding after the incident's started. The intelligence and law enforcement organizations can't effectively predict trends, events that run contrary to social norms let alone track them! after they occur! At least not as thoroughly as they did in the past.

Personally and professionally I realized that it's more productive if our law enforcement, our intelligence organizations proactively work the "trends" and take APPROPRIATE action before the events occur rather than collect the bodies, statistics and other data AFTER THE FACT!

When law enforcement and intelligence folks are "pro-active" they tend to prevent things from happening, or at least they help to reduce the carnage. When they're "re-active" they serve to help clean up the mess, determine responsibility and hunt the bad guy(s) down to prevent more carnage. Unfortunately, quite often during the "re-active" process more damage, carnage occurs. When law enforcement and intelligence agencies are reduced to becoming a reactive element in the protection of our society they've been rendered ineffective. At least from the "prevention" standpoint which, quite frankly I'd personally prefer over the "enforcement" or "re-active" alternative.

I don't understand why we won't accept the fact that we need eyes and ears out "there" for our protection. Why are we blinding and deafening them? Why are we rendering those who we've empowered to protect us, to serve us, to police us... why are we rendering them to be essentially nothing more than a reactive clean up crew?!

Again, that's just my take on things. I've been known to be wrong in the past about many things. For what it's worth.

IMHO