PROFILE
FROM Jim Bueermann
Dash cams, body cams and unintended consequences High-profile cases of questionable killings and other alleged misbehavior have police departments mounting cameras on patrol cars and on cops themselves. The idea is public "transparency." But Seattle had 300,000 hours of dash-cam footage — enough to keep 170 people busy for a year in response to a court order. Body cams don't provide surveillance of the police -- it's the mostly innocent people they talk to. Should those interviews become public? Who should make the rules and implement the decisions day-to-day?
Dash cams, body cams and unintended consequences High-profile cases of questionable killings and other alleged misbehavior have police departments mounting cameras on patrol cars and on cops themselves. The idea is public "transparency." But Seattle had 300,000 hours of dash-cam footage — enough to keep 170 people busy for a year in response to a court order. Body cams don't provide surveillance of the police -- it's the mostly innocent people they talk to. Should those interviews become public? Who should make the rules and implement the decisions day-to-day?
Law Enforcement: Some Unanswered Questions How many Americans are killed by police every year? Who are they? Are the incidents justified? Nobody knows the answers to those questions. Some 18,000 law enforcement agencies are asked to report to the FBI, but it’s voluntary. They don’t have to if they don’t want to, and different agencies use different standards to measure performance. Two US senators are proposing new rules for accountability , but there’s dispute about whether that’s a good idea. After a flood of stories about police killings, the Washington Post and the Guardian US have compiled statistics of their own — with results that are very different from those of the FBI. Would an accurate national database help to improve law enforcement or generate unwarranted federal power over local police?
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