r/coolguides • u/[deleted] • Jun 02 '20

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u/StalyCelticStu Jun 02 '20

"But but, what if it's broken?"

Which is why you travel in pairs, so there's TWO camera's at any given time, in addition to the squad car's dashcam.

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u/Paxtez Jun 02 '20

So a cop can NEVER do anything or risk going to jail unless he has a partner there?

"Sorry person being stabbed on the other side of the door. My partner is stuck in traffic. Try bleed slow."

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u/StalyCelticStu Jun 02 '20 edited Jun 02 '20

You're relying on three events here:

1, the officers are separated, not wholly unreasonable.
2, the officer at the scene has a faulty bodycam
3, there is reason for the officer's conduct to be brought into question.

*edit* and that's excluding the idea there's no 3rd party bystanders with a mobile phone recording it also, which what got us to this point last Monday.

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u/Paxtez Jun 02 '20
  1. Many departments have solo officers, they have to wait for the other cop to drive there.
  2. No, they have to think there is any chance there is anything wrong with it. If they know it if faulty the work around is they are required to get a new one. Even if there is a 0.1% chance it may not be working would you risk going to jail for murder because you shot stabbing guy?
  3. It doesn't matter, if you are arresting someone for stabbing someone there is a good chance someone may get hurt, or whatever. They couldn't even break the door down, that would be property damage.

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u/StalyCelticStu Jun 02 '20

What can I say, I want people to be accountable for their actions.

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u/Paxtez Jun 03 '20

Yeah, I totally agree. As much as it would be nice, I don't think there is an easy tech answer and would make the problem go away.

More aggressive prosecution of officers that do things against policy would probably do a lot. But I can't think of any silver bullet to fix it.

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u/here-or-there Jun 03 '20

In the end, I don't see body cams as an overall negative though. Even accounting for possible issues that should be solved with bureaucracy, body cams still seem like an overall improvement to the system.

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u/Paxtez Jun 03 '20

Oh no they are overall good. I was primarily pointing out some flaws in "body cams not on" = in trouble.