A Test of Police Body Cameras Defies Expectations
I was recently the victim of an armed kidnapping, escaping only by jumping out of my own car from the driver seat while in gear with the gunman in the passenger seat.By the time the police arrived, my attacker escaped in my car and the first words out of the sergeants mouth was “cut the crap, quit jerking us around, what really happened?”Sure enough I was in a jurisdiction that only two months prior was equipped with vest cameras (due to community outrage over an execution style killing of a 21 year old black male pulled over with a phone the police thought was a gun).  As an officer of the court myself I was beyond dismayed and obtained 2 different copies of police video from the scene...wouldn’t you know both officers vest videos were redacted and specifically edited out the audio of the sergeant’s first words to me and the sergeant’s video didn’t exist.  The dvds even say redacted right on them, and I knew before I even watched, which is funny because I had to pay ~$100 for the video, basically paying for the time it took for the department to watch and redact the 1 part I really wanted.How would such a system have any effect of police officer behavior?