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>> All police body cam footage should be public.

Even if they're busting a brothel? Or arresting drunk drivers? Or breaking up a bar fight?

I get that people want transparency for "public servants" but I dont think people necessarily want transparency into regular peoples lives even if their actions are questionable. That leads to 24/7 suveilence under the poor argument of "if you have nothing to hide..."

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Redaction systems exist and are used for exactly this purpose. It's entirely possible to be transparent and protect citizen privacy.

I work with a company that provides this type of technology for FOIA requests so I'm fairly familiar with it :)

How do you redact the arrest of someone who turns out to be innocent?

You remove their face and change their voice in the video. At least, when you're talking about body cam footage. You also blur license plates, addresses, etc. That's what is already being done for information requests to law enforcement.

This isn't a hypothetical btw. This is actually how it happens in many jurisdictions, and some law enforcement agencies are being proactive about this and thinking through how to be more transparent without risking privacy of innocent or guilty parties (both deserve privacy).

Usually via the general fund of the locality where the video was recorded.

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