Police have undermined the promise of transparency and accountability that accompanied the body-camera motion that started a decade in the past, reports Eric Umansky for the New York Times. Costing lots of of thousands and thousands of {dollars}, the know-how represented the biggest new funding in policing in a technology and had been carried out within the wake of widespread Black Lives Matter protests in 2014. However in only a single evaluate of civilians killed by cops in June 2022, police have launched footage in simply 33 instances, or about 42 %, within the 12 months and half since.
Los Angeles has spent almost $60 million since getting cameras in 2016. In Philadelphia, the place footage is never launched, the cameras have value taxpayers about $20 million. New York Metropolis has spent greater than $50 million. But police have usually been capable of hold footage hidden from the general public in even probably the most excessive instances. And when full footage has been launched, usually by prosecutors or after public strain, it usually contradicts preliminary police accounts. Jeff Schlanger, a former New York deputy commissioner who had an oversight position throughout the implementation of body-worn cameras and left the division in 2021, believes that the police have usually failed to make use of the cameras for accountability and that political leaders have to do extra.
Source / Picture: thecrimereport.org
