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Comment by Bancakes | Hacker News Reader

If this passes, you can no longer ask a cop their name and badge number on camera or recording.

I have always wondered why people even bother with that. All that data goes on the ticket they write you and if you are ticketed the officer has to appear in court to validate the citation. If you don’t get any kind of citation there is no action against you to complain about. But if you just need something to complain about let a lawyer do it for you.

This is in case you're recording an officer and you want zero ambiguity when writing a complaint form. It's not just about getting lawyers, often cops act differently when being recorded from different angles or livestreamed for other people to save. You must be European, it's not always as simple as "Here's your ticket, goodbye.".

Nope. I am from Texas and have had MANY encounters with law enforcement. If there’s not a problem on paper in 99% of cases there isn’t any problem. In the remaining cases there could be a civil rights issue, but again that’s up to the attorneys to argue.

Right, and I need the whole scene and the officer's personal information filmed in either course of action. It allows for better camera angles and I don't have to beg the PD for dashcams or bodycams.

>If there’s not a problem on paper

I need the officer's info to put something on that form in the first place. Plus, it takes 5 seconds for a cop to introduce himself.

No, it sounds like a good way to verify the officer knows what he's doing and isn't putting anyone in danger. After all, who can trust a random stranger with a gun who needs to pass very lax qualifications?

I'm really happy all your encounters have been flawless. So have mine. However recording is free, neither side has anything to lose, and has all the benefits in case of a lawsuit or formal complaint.

The need for filming everything sounds like an immature cry for attention, like teenage social media nonsense. Every time I have received a ticket from a police officer they have already written all their personal administrative data. Every single time. Maybe other states don't require that, but I every out of state ticket I have received was exactly the same process.

> if you don’t get any kind of citation there is no action against you to complain about.

Surely you are trolling? Plenty of evidence of plenty of police doing things that warrant civilian complaints that were never intended to be documented in the form of a citation by a police officer.

I am not trolling. I do believe people who complain about specific police actions and yet are not willing to hire an attorney are trolling in the offline real world.

Hiring an attorney comes down to a lot more than simple will. The phone camera is one of the most powerful tools the average person has to combat abuses of authority. Not everyone who is a victim of that has the means or resources (or sometimes the sympathy) to just go hire an attorney.

That is teenage social media nonsense, some combination of laziness and a desire for attention. If you aren’t willing to hire an attorney you aren’t taking the problem seriously.

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