From: Zero Powers (zero_powers@hotmail.com)
Date: Tue Apr 04 2000 - 14:57:15 MDT
Transparency is becoming less "impossible" everyday. This is from the
3/30/2000 edition of the Los Angeles Daily Journal, page 2:
Los Angeles police and city staff members have been directed to advise the
City Council on whether it would be a good idea to equip Los Angeles Police
Department officers with $9,000 microcamera-and-videorecorder systems to
chronicle their interactions with the public.
The cameras would attach to vests worn by officers and transmit signals to
videorecorders in the trunks of patrol cars. The Los Angeles County
sheriffs department is conducting a pilot program with such technology,
according to City Council member Michael Feuer.
On a motion Wednesday by Feuer, the police department, the city attorney and
the city's legislative analyst and administrative officer were instructed to
report to council members on the cost restrictions on use, feasibility and
value to the city of a pilot program similar to the sheriffs. They also
were asked to identify potential funding sources.
The use of “personal video-camera” technology could help restore public
trust in the LAPD, increase officer, accountability, avert frivolous
misconduct claims and help the department, evaluate officer liability
according to Feuer.
The LAPD is installing video cameras in new patrol cars, and many officers
now use audiotapes “to protect themselves from false claims of misconduct,”
Feuer's motion states. Vest-mounted microcameras would “serve this purpose
more effectively,” it adds.
-Zero
"I like dreams of the future better than the history of the past"
--Thomas Jefferson
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