PAX Centurion - Spring 2019

Page 14 • PAX CENTURION • Spring 2019 617-989-BPPA (2772) in more rather than less force being used….”. Those same officers reported to the Pax that they recalled countless instances where officers responded to shootings and witnesses refused to say anything to police at all because of the visible presence of body cameras, despite assurances from officers that the BWC’s were “OFF”. If they’re going to be deployed at all, body-cameras should be used as a tool for our officers, and not as “Gotcha” material for our (non) friends at theACLU, self-appointed community activists, or the news media. Most officers have a fairly good, innate sense of when to activate the camera for their personal protection or to record contentious situations, and therefore, the decision on when/when not to activate recording should be left with the officer. Certainly, entering into a domestic disturbance call at a residence should be one of those occasions when – regardless of what the occupant wants- the officer should always have the BWC “ON” , for personal self- protection against false allegations, if nothing else. Avery lengthy, front-page article appeared on the cover of the New York Times Magazine (October 23, 2016, author McKenzie Funk ) entitled “Should we see everything a cop sees?” The article reviews “Seattle’s bodycam program and the dark side of total transparency.” The article recounts a meeting held by Seattle’s “Community Police Commission” “that represented the people the consent decree, and body cameras, were most meant to protect.” Apolice officer who was present to assist at the meeting briefly filmed the participants to explain how the body camera worked. A lawyer who was also present asked the panelists to ask “when, Body Cameras: Issues of privacy, safety and civil rights collide… From Body Cameras on page 11 to be weighed and tested against witness testimony, forensics, the involved officer’s statement, and other elements of a fair, thorough, and impartial investigation that takes human factors into consideration. "This is in no way intended to belittle the merits of body cameras. Early testing has shown that they tend to reduce the frequency of force encounters as well as complaints against officers. "But a well-known police defense attorney is not far wrong when he calls cameras ‘the best evidence and the worst evidence.’The limitations of body cams and others need to be fully understood and evaluated to maximize their effectiveness and to assure that they are not regarded as infallible ‘magic bullets’ by people who do not fully grasp the realities of force dynamics." There already has been negative push back from civilians about the cameras. From reading some articles apparently the interactions paint the civilian in a negative light as some of the footage has shown just what police officers put up with from the public. The big question is will that civilian that makes the complaint against an officer be held accountable once the complaint is proven false from video evidence. I will hold my breath and believe the officer will still go through the stress of going through the complaint procedure. Any officer that has been through these investigations know 99% of the time the complaint is nonsense and exhaust numerous resources of the department. H H H H H H H H H H I did find this article on BPD.NEWS. Northeastern University’s preliminary findings of the randomized controlled trial suggest that the placement of body worn cameras A view from the street… From View on page 13 exactly, the cameras should be on,” and… “should it only be used if there’s an accusation against a police officer? Should it be used by criminal investigators and by defendants and by prosecutors?” Apparently, the meeting then devolved into a shouting match. A local activist stated, “This conversation about bodycams is a complete and total farce.” She did not consent to being recorded at all, stating that she did not trust the police to do the right thing with the footage. According to the article… “…the mood became tense, and members of the crowd interrupted the next speaker and soon assumed control of the room, taking turns denouncing police brutality.” And then… “three weeks later, the commission, the voice of the people, called for Seattle to delay full deployment of bodycams… saying …This is a new technology …which may have unintended consequences.” The article then continued to recount how other activists had purposefully filed hundreds of “FOI” (freedom of information) demands with the express purpose in mind of bogging down police resources in researching and reviewing thousands upon thousands of hours of video footage. So much for total transparency. The related costs were estimated – for storage and retrieval, research, recovery and review – in the multi-millions of dollars. Dollars taken away from training and recruitment of new officers, who aren’t exactly flocking to join Seattle’s finest now-a-days, and one can readily see why. Body cameras are not the panacea they appear to be. They should be used, if at all, as a tool to protect our members from false allegations, and not as a trap for our critics to hamstring us with. on Boston Police officers may generate small benefits to the civility of police-citizen civilian encounters. The preliminary analysis determined that placement of BWCs on officers seemed to reduce the incidence of citizen complaints. The impact was twelve (12) fewer complaints filed against officers equipped with BWCs over the one- year intervention period which amounts to one less complaint per month compared to control group officers. Overall, the number of citizen complaints filed against Boston police officers has steadily declined over the past four years with an overall decline of 41%. Additionally, specific to excessive force complaints, there has been a decrease of complaints against officers by 54% since 2013 and as much as a 74% decrease since 2011. The preliminary analysis determined placement of BWCs on officers did not significantly reduce the number of submitted Use of Force reports for BWC officers when compared to control officers. The impact was the difference of just seven (7) less reports for the BWC officers compared to the control group. While the analysis showed a reduction, it did not determine the reduction in reporting was directly due to officers wearing BWCs. Since 2013, Use of Force reports have seen a 54% decrease while arrests too have dropped 32% for the same period. That leads me to give my own opinion that we are not the problem. I believe that we have the best police department in the country. We need tough men and woman who are fearless willing to go after tougher criminals that don’t respect the laws of society. Our officers have answered the call to put the safety of the community first time and time again. We have some of the best men and woman to ever put a gun belt on in this department.