Is the Bridgeport police force considering body cameras for all its sworn officers? Police Chief Joe Gaudett says it’s a worthy discussion in conjunction with the Police Union to both guard against police abuse and abuse heaped on cops. Bridgeport has had its share of police abuse issues, including the 2011 stomping of a man in Beardsley Park that led to federal civil rights charges against three officers and a $200,000 taxpayer-paid legal settlement.
According to a report by the Wall Street Journal, in “Rialto, Calif. … an entire police force is wearing so-called body-mounted cameras, no bigger than pagers, that record everything that transpires between officers and citizens. In the first year after the cameras’ introduction, the use of force by officers declined 60%, and citizen complaints against police fell 88%.”
In an effort to rebuild trust between law enforcement and communities following Ferguson, President Obama announced a funding package to equip local police forces with 50,000 body cameras nationwide. It could spur local law enforcement officials put off by costs to revisit implementation of cameras.
Gaudett in the past has said he’d be open to body cameras as well as dashboard cameras, but cited funding issues. This, of course, must be measured against what it costs taxpayers because of police misconduct.
The Bridgeport Police Department has no dashboard cameras in its 63 patrol cars. Civil rights activists like them to guard against police abuse, even some cops like them because they can contradict a false citizen complaint. So the cameras function as both protection for citizens as well as guarding officers from false claims.
The East Haven Police Department, facing a federal investigation into racial profiling including federal criminal charges against four officers, installed dashboard cruisers at a reported cost of $115,000 for 16 cars.
There was news today on television the Feds are about to release funding to municipalities for just that purpose. 🙂
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Body cameras are good for they protect the police as well as the potential criminal. There should be little or no opposition to this, because I believe it is a win-win situation for everybody. This will reduce lawsuits and legal costs and possibly incarceration for the innocent.
This is a no-brainer!
www .ctpost.com/news/texas/article/About-100-brains-missing-from-University-of-Texas-5930931.php
Shocking mistake in Darren Wilson grand jury | MSNBC
www .msnbc.com/the-last-word/watch/shocking-mistake-in-darren-wilson-grand-jury-364273731666
What good are body cameras when in NYC the Grand Jury did not indict a NYC police officer for the killing of Eric Garner with a choke hold?
Ron, the use of cameras is a good thing, in actuality it’s a real good thing for the PD. I watched the video you posted and quite frankly any news station that would have Al Sharpton and Lawrence O’Donnell has very little credibility. I don’t know why that asst. prosecutor handed out that invalid law to read but it did not matter, Wilson was not shot in the back he was shot not fleeing but charging at the police officer. 6’5″ and 290 lbs is a very big man to deal with.
Look, the simple fact is if both these men obeyed the orders of the police officers they would be alive today and no I am not saying they deserved to be shot for not listening.
A couple of points, there was a camera on what happened to Eric Garner being killed by a choke hold and it doesn’t matter if he obeyed the law or not, his crime was he was selling loose cigarettes, by law he should have been given a written citation, instead he was killed.
Prosecutors need the police to make and win their cases and prosecutors who want to advance their careers will NEVER indict a police officer. It doesn’t matter what you think about Lawrence O’Donnell, he gave correct information about the information that was used to set Wilson free. Wilson is the same height as Michael Brown, his crime was walking in the middle of the street and stealing a box of cigars, his sentence was death. What does a police officer have to do in America to get indicted?
Ron, very dramatic response but not really factual. Look, Brown stole cigarillos, pushed aside the store owner and left the store. He then was walking in the middle of the street when Wilson arrived and told him and his friend to get out of the street. Wilson tried to exit the police car when Brown slammed the door shut and reached inside the car and punched Wilson in the face twice. Two shots were fired and you know the rest. I did not say Brown was killed for stealing cigarillos, he was killed because he refused to obey a lawful order of a police officer and assaulted this same officer.
America is now seeing what is wrong with the “grand jury system.” Prosecutors need the police to make and win their cases and prosecutors who want to advance their careers, they will NEVER indict a police officer. The police are the producers for prosecutors, how can we expect prosecutors to challenge the group that is making their career? Rudy Giuliani and Chris Christie were both prosecutors and politicians just like all prosecutors are and they all want to move up the ladder and whose back do they stand on, the police. The grand jury system for the police MUST be destroyed and special prosecutors must replace them, they would be former judges and lawyers who have no connection with the police.
Ron, Abner Louima and Rodney King come to mind.
Those cases had to go to a federal grand jury that had different rules to indict.