A federal judge has ordered Iowa to release video and other records in the 2015 police shooting death of Burlington mother Autumn Steele, a ruling that could open more law enforcement video to public inspection. Burlington Police officer Jesse Hill accidentally shot Steele after he responded to a report of a domestic dispute during which […]
Read More… from Judge orders city to give up full video in case of Iowa mom killed by cop
A Milwaukee journalist working on a story about police response times was arrested over the weekend after taking photographs of squad cars in a Milwaukee Police Department parking lot. Edgar Mendez, a reporter with the Milwaukee Neighborhood News Service, was issued a $181 ticket for trespassing — but only after being handcuffed, fingerprinted and questioned at the police station at […]
Read More… from Milwaukee journalist arrested after photographing squad cars at police lot
Police departments from Bakersfield, Calif., to Scranton, Pa., and beyond are piloting and deploying body-worn cameras (BWC) in increasing numbers, a movement happening just as privacy issues gain greater attention across the nation. While many hold out hope that BWCs will bring greater accountability and transparency of police actions, the technology also has the potential to cut into citizens’ […]
Read More… from Cops Wearing Cameras: What Happens When Privacy and Accountability Collide?
In a world that is becoming increasingly communicative — where people often receive their news, share news, state their opinions and post pictures with their whereabouts via social media — the lines are perhaps a bit more blurry about how such information can be used.
Last month, the Brennan Center for Justice, a nonpartisan law and policy institute, released a map that details specific cities, counties and law enforcement agencies across the United States that have spent at least $10,000 on social media monitoring software.
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Read More… from Law Enforcement Agencies Spend Millions on Social Media Monitoring
The South Portland Police Department has released the document that spells out its officers should use the body cameras that they will begin wearing in a few weeks.
The department posted the policy on its Facebook page following calls from civil liberties advocates for assurance the the cameras will not be used to invade people’s privacy. The policy was not initially released when the department announced that it would begin using the technology. The ACLU of Maine filed a public records request for the document, according Legal Director Zach Heiden.
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Read More… from South Portland Police Department releases its body camera policy
Police body cameras would restore public trust, proponents said. They would infuse transparency into the murky, complicated human interactions in which officers daily find themselves, they promised. They would be a hard defense against police abuse, they swore.
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Cameras mounted inside patrol cars captured every moment.
With their guns drawn, Gardena police officers screamed instructions at three men on the sidewalk. The officers warned them to keep their hands above their heads, mistakenly believing that they had been involved in a robbery.
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Read More… from Privacy often trumps transparency with police shooting videos
Taser International, the stun-gun maker emerging as a leading supplier of body cameras for police, has cultivated financial ties to police chiefs whose departments have bought the recording devices, raising a host of conflict-of-interest questions.
A review of records and interviews by The Associated Press show Taser is covering airfare and hotel stays for police chiefs who speak at promotional conferences. It is also hiring recently retired chiefs as consultants, sometimes just months after their cities signed contracts with Taser.
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Read More… from Body-camera maker has financial ties to police chiefs
The cause of open government in Connecticut has taken extraordinarily hard knocks of late, undermining this state's once-sterling reputation nationally for valuing openness and promoting the free flow of information. One of the hardest was a disappointing state Supreme Court ruling last year that severely limits the amount of information that local police departments and the state police are required to disclose about an arrest while prosecution is pending.
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Read More… from Editorial: Don’t Let Police Decide What Public Should Know
Along with police departments in New York City and Los Angeles, Seattle police are preparing to test body cams on officers in the field. In an attempt to find a balance between releasing footage and redacting private details, Seattle police held a hackathon of Friday.
Discussion around whether law enforcement agents should wear body cams has surged in the months since the shooting of Michael Brown. And as funding comes through for pilot programs, it's increasingly important to answer question about how these devices will be implemented.
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Read More… from Seattle Police Held a Hackathon to Figure Out How to Redact Body Cam Video Streams
