Body-worn video: LE use in the USA?

[davidbfpo]

There are ample signs in England that if a criminal prosecution lacks some video footage - if relevant or possibly available - then managers and prosecutors maybe reluctant to press ahead. For example for benefit fraud, where a claim is made for disability, three separate video clips are needed that show the person is able bodied, e.g. lifting heavy weights.

At court it is well known that magistrates will give weight to video evidence. It will be interesting to see if this changes when the defence has their own video. Even in a relatively short incident at Downing Street gates, known as "Pleb Gate", the video record has been challenged.

As a society we are becoming a visual generation; no pictures, nothing there.

[slapout9]

As a society we are becoming a visual generation; no pictures, nothing there.

Some years ago I was at an Officer Survival seminar and a defense Attorney was giving a lecture about courtroom testimony, evidence, etc. One of his points was that whenever possible he would use Visual evidence not Testimony or audio evidence. Visual is much more persuasive at least based upon his courtroom experience which was considerable.

[TheCurmudgeon]

Some years ago I was at an Officer Survival seminar and a defense Attorney was giving a lecture about courtroom testimony, evidence, etc. One of his points was that whenever possible he would use Visual evidence not Testimony or audio evidence. Visual is much more persuasive at least based upon his courtroom experience which was considerable.

I remember hearing a lecture on evidence as to which was more powerful, 100 nuns who say they watched the courtyard all night and never saw anyone cross it or the footprints in the snow across the courtyard demonstrating that someone had crossed it during the night.

That being said ...

As a society we are becoming a visual generation; no pictures, nothing there.

... I was actually just thinking the oposite, that today I cannot trust anything on video.


http://www.noupe.com/inspiration/50-...portraits.html

With the right technology I can prove that velociraptors shot Kennedy...

[carl]

Something else to wear, more wires to route, another battery to check, more opportunity for your Sgt and anybody on high to bug you, more things to catalog and store and if the durn thing malfunctions in operation, storage or retrieval what you witnessed didnt really happen. And more OJ juries who firmly believe that if it ain't on tape, it didn't really happen.

To me this is just another manifestation of the modern cultural belief that we can make things perfect if we only have another machine. In the long run little good will come of that belief.

[slapout9]

Not LE but close. San Francisco Fire Chief has banned helmet cameras.




http://news.msn.com/videos/?ap=True&...om=en-us_msnhp

[carl]

Slap:

There is something I just thought of when I read your post. Do you think some the the less thoughtful guys might do some grandstanding for their head cameras they might not otherwise do?

[selil]

I had to operate in a 360 surveilance environment. Guys would grandstand and idiots would idioate. All on film. CIs shutdown. The footage from non related times would be used to embarrass. Scratch your crotch, pick your nose, it was all there on film ready to be edited into a story that didn't happen.

[slapout9]

Slap:

There is something I just thought of when I read your post. Do you think some the the less thoughtful guys might do some grandstanding for their head cameras they might not otherwise do?

Definitely!

[Fuchs]

http://de.scribd.com/doc/130767873/S...e-use-of-force

used camera: http://www.taser.com/flex

Moderator's Note

Normally to avoid copyright issues SWC removes Scribd links, on this occasion it appears the publishers, the Police Foundation, have loaded this article onto Scribd, so it remains here. Nice article too, thanks (ends).