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Comment by msane | Hacker News Reader

Absolutely. Police should have a lapel camera or a Glass like camera rolling at all times. Prevents brutality and (more prevalent) false claims of thereof.

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Some departments do already. I think there's a technical glitch though: they seem to malfunction or delete their data whenever the cop does something illegal.

Perhaps police department payroll/funding systems should also malfunction during periods video recorders do.

I think it is a mistake to insist on the "at all times".

If a police officer is doing something that would be sensible to record and for some reason chooses to leave the camera off, you eventually learn something. I say eventually because the flexibility could be used for abuse, saying "I forgot" and "technical problems", but not over and over and over again.

I don't understand what you're trying to say. You say it's a mistake to insist the camera be on at all times, but then you go ahead and say that that would be open to abuse?

It's a lot harder for opponents to argue against the idea of testimony enhancing equipment than it is for them to argue against equipment that strips the officer of discretion and privacy. So the use it when you want to version probably gets deployed faster and with less fuss.

I don't think a police officer needs a great deal of privacy while on duty, but I also don't mind giving them the ability to turn off recording devices when they use the toilet. I mean turn it off independently, without asking some overseer for permission.

Being under constant scrutiny can help avoid abuses. But it causes a chilling effect - normal people (including police) can freeze or become passive, constantly aware of everybody looking over their shoulder. They become useless.

It's a possibility. Police officers aren't really the type of people who are prone to freezing up under scrutiny however. It's already a high pressure job and the people who do it are those who can act under pressure. Also I would say that some people are bound to perform even more excellently when they know their actions may be seen by others. i.e., some people are encouraged to go above and beyond when they are on camera.

Controlling the circumstances under which recordings are viewed or released is important to consider as well. The way I see it there are two circumstances for viewing these recordings:

- Internal to law enforcement as part of performance review or incident investigation.

- Requested by the public in regard to a specific incident.

I don't think the tech is ready just yet. Can't the glass record under half an hour and gets really hot while doing that?

Since the police are wearing a uniform, an integrated camera might be better.

Yes probably not Glass itself, if only for the fact that they would look ridiculous :P

There is something to be said for power of the first-person view however. Maybe a more "police-ish" looking Glass?

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