San Jose police, under fire for interactions with the public that have turned violent, on Friday launched a pilot project equipping officers with head-mounted cameras to record contacts with civilians. Officers will activate the cameras, about the size of a Bluetooth device and attached by a headband above the ear, every time they respond or make contact with a person. At the end of the officer’s shift, the recording will be downloaded to a central server.
Chief Rob Davis said the devices, to be tested by 18 patrol officers, are a technological advance comparable to the advent of police cars, two-way radios and the 911 emergency system. San Jose is the first major U.S. city to try out the devices, known as AXON. Although officers are already bearing vests, weapons and radios, most of them welcome adding a camera to record their actions, Davis said. In addition, he said, “We’re making it so it has cachet.” A leading critic of the department welcomed the cameras as a tool to provide useful evidence, but dismissed their significance as a solution to rocky police-community relations.
“The AXON project is unfortunately a positive thing right now because the level of distrust is so high,” said Raj Jayadev, director of the community organization Silicon Valley De-Bug. “But it doesn’t address the more fundamental problem: What stereotypes police may carry when they see people of color on the street and make assumptions about character.”
Good news for black people… it doesn’t see them at all.
“What stereotypes police may carry when they see people of color on the street and make assumptions about character.”
Sheesh.
Yea. What stereotype do YOU conjure up when you see some citizen at night coming towards you on the sidewalk with baggy pants hanging below his thighs, walking in that diversely colorful way required to keep his pants from falling down, and when he gets close enough to share his diversity, you see the letters “Enrique” tattoed on his neck, and other colorful and splendid and thoughtful tattoos on his forehead?
I guess if you are a typical lib, walking to your Prius at night after having a wonderful meal of tacos in San Jose, keep walking right towards him, and you consider how richly diverse our communities are, and how lucky your wife, kids, and you are to experience the ethnic wonder of Luis.
I guess I’m an incurable racist. And glad of it.
Re #1, I saw that guy and asked him if he could change a hundred.
The camera can detect the presence of donuts at 100 paces.
“Officers will activate the cameras…” and, one supposes, DEactivate the camera. I imagine an officer dealing with a “difficult” traffic stop in a most professional and placating manner. Concluding the business, turning off his camera then delivering a beat down. Or, simply saying he forgot to turn his camera on?
Nope. this idea will not be worthwhile until the cameras are made smaller and run continuously.
#1, factswrong,
I guess I’m an incurable racist. And glad of it.
Nope, I think that post removes any guesswork.
#4, Animby,
I agree. Not only that, but storage media is extremely inexpensive. There is no reason the cameras can’t be left on full time.
The “police are racists” chant is starting to annoy me greatly. Over time a cop learns who the troublemakers are and are not and if that experience makes him scrutinize people of certain colors more so so be it. Leftist lunies be damned.
Faxon, will you marry me?
It’s so typical that the idiots here use extreme cases to try and prove their point. What if I saw a shaven-headed asshole in work boots white t-shirt and jeans with a swastika tattoo? Any fucktard can come up with straw-man arguments.