• prole@sh.itjust.works
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    117
    ·
    11 months ago

    “When the police officer had his body cam off, they were yelling and telling me, ‘We’re gonna go to the full extent. We’re gonna put you in a lockbox,’” Timothy said. “Then, when the body cam was finally on, they were so nice.”

    How are we still letting cops just turn off body cams? It defeats the entire fucking purpose.

    • Something_Complex@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      62
      ·
      11 months ago

      The shouldn’t be able to ever turn them off while they are working and if they do. Immediate suspension, second time formal inquiry, 3rd time he’s out in his ass.

      I feel like you guys can’t even control your own police

      • BlanketsWithSmallpox@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        5
        ·
        edit-2
        11 months ago

        Fwiw the biggest issue with bodycams is that they’re expensive as hell. Milwaukee wanted to get better equipped with them a few years back and nobody wanted to pay. People want to defund police but it throws so much off. Even when they want to defund, Republicans refuse to push legislation to get more Crisis workers who can help and fund mental health care.

        Most voters barely want to fund schools, let alone the police and poor/addicted/troubled lol.

        https://www.jsonline.com/story/communities/west/news/wauwatosa/2021/04/12/cost-body-cameras-setback-milwaukee-area-departments/6966971002/

        • gkd@lemmy.ml
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          13
          ·
          11 months ago

          The cost of a body cam doesn’t have anything to do with policies on whether or not they can be turned off.

          • Lyrl@lemm.ee
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            3
            ·
            edit-2
            11 months ago

            The cost isn’t the cam itself, it’s the servers and their software and IT administrators to maintain them, the personnel to audit the videos, and the personnel to respond to records requests by being able to locate archived files and redeact private information of the people the police interact with in the requested videos. Spinning up and maintaining multiple departments that just didn’t exist before a body cam program was implemented is a significant resource draw.

            If the auditing personnel aren’t hired in sufficient numbers, or the IT personnel to keep the video archives actually usable, then turning off of bodycams won’t ever be caught.

            • gkd@lemmy.ml
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              2
              ·
              11 months ago

              But what does that have to do with a bodycam being turned off during an incident? We see them clearly disable them or cover them on their own. I’m not saying they need to be turned on 24/7, that’s obviously not feasible.

      • Alien Nathan Edward@lemm.ee
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        11 months ago

        The ability to turn the cam off while you shit could easily have come with a rule that states that if you turn your cam off while doing cop stuff you’re fired, but it didnt. Privacy in the bathroom is the excuse, not the reason. The reason is that cameras exonerate the innocent and impugn the guilty without regard to status or favor, and cops want to continue to break the law and hurt people who haven’t broken the law. They’re a street gang. There is no cop who enforces the law without fear or favor, there are only criminals and cops that ignore crime committed by people they like.