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Body Camera Maker Will Let Cops Live-Stream Their Encounters (fastcompany.com) 71

tedlistens writes: Police officers wearing new cameras by Axon, the U.S.'s largest body camera supplier, will soon be able to send live video from their cameras back to base and elsewhere, potentially expanding police surveillance. Another feature of the new device -- set to be released next year -- triggers the camera to start recording and alerts command staff once an officer has fired their weapon, a possible corrective to the problem of officers forgetting to switch them on. (The initial price of $699 doesn't include other costs, like a subscription to Axon's Evidence.com data management system.)

But adding new technologies to body camera video introduces new privacy concerns, say legal experts, who have cautioned that a network of live-streaming cameras risks turning officers into roving sentinels for a giant panopticon-like surveillance system. Harlan Yu, the executive director of Upturn, a Washington nonprofit consultancy that has studied body cameras, says that live-streaming could erode community trust and help enable more controversial technologies like real-time face recognition. "The capability to live stream all BWC footage back to a department- or precinct-wide command center... will further entrench body-worn cameras as tools for police surveillance of communities, rather than tools for transparency," he said.

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Body Camera Maker Will Let Cops Live-Stream Their Encounters

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  • by xxxJonBoyxxx ( 565205 ) on Monday October 08, 2018 @05:01PM (#57447852)
    Bad boys, bad boys, whatcha gonna do?
  • recording after? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by rogoshen1 ( 2922505 ) on Monday October 08, 2018 @05:07PM (#57447888)

    Huh, wouldn't it seem that the events just prior to the cop shooting are what is actually relevant.

    Perhaps they should figure out a way to trigger recording when the cop starts showing stress reactions (which could be triggered by fear, anger, etc)

    • hopefully cops are not running around with their weapon drawn much and that seems a better starting time to my mind (it should be easy enough to figure out when they draw).

      • Well even then; you wouldn't know what made the cop draw in the first place. Still better than after they shoot though.

      • From TFA: "These technologies aren’t completely new: A similar sensor Axon released last year is meant to activate cameras once a weapon is drawn from its holster"

      • A 60 second look back from the time a weapon is drawn would seem reasonable to me.

        LK

    • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Anonymous Coward

      I recall reading that some early body cameras were designed to continuously record into a 30-60s buffer, and then when the camera is set to 'record' it dumps the buffer and then appends in real time. Whether this actually happens or is better or worse is up for debate.

      • Re:recording after? (Score:5, Interesting)

        by theweatherelectric ( 2007596 ) on Monday October 08, 2018 @05:39PM (#57448060)

        continuously record into a 30-60s buffer, and then when the camera is set to 'record' it dumps the buffer

        This feature caught Baltimore police planting drugs [nytimes.com] in an attempt to fake body camera footage. Had they been an extra 30 seconds corrupt they would have got away with it.

        • by ShanghaiBill ( 739463 ) on Monday October 08, 2018 @06:50PM (#57448342)

          This feature caught Baltimore police planting drugs [nytimes.com] in an attempt to fake body camera footage.

          If you watch the video, you can see one cop planting the drugs, while two other cops stand and watch as if planting evidence is perfectly normal and routine.

          Only the cop planting the evidence was fired. The other two corrupt cops are still Baltimore police officers.

        • More like a 30-60 day buffer... If the gov is demanding that tech companies hold user data for two+ years, why can't we just demand police do the same?

          And regarding emergency recording based on gunshots.. Uh, yeah, that's a bit too late for describing events leading up to the need to discharge a gun. Cameras should come on the moment a cop finds reason to engage with the general public...maybe a proximity sensor via Bluetooth that immediately turns them on when a cop exits his car.

      • by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

        I recall reading that some early body cameras were designed to continuously record into a 30-60s buffer, and then when the camera is set to 'record' it dumps the buffer and then appends in real time. Whether this actually happens or is better or worse is up for debate.

        I think technology should've improved to the point where we can get a day's worth of recordings. The unit records immediately once taken off the charger and stops at the end of the shift being placed back on the charger.

        To make life easier, yo

    • I am under the impression that usually body cameras are continuously recording- when they get "switched on" they then start saving- as well as the previous minute or two before the turn-on. If these are not designed like that it is a huge flaw.

    • by Leuf ( 918654 )
      Typically the camera is always recording to its buffer. When it starts recording to file it includes what was in the buffer. So you get some time from before you actually start the recording. There have been cases where cops were caught planting evidence because they didn't know that and recorded themselves doing it even though they had turned off the recording.
    • A 1,000 times this. Otherwise we'll have non-stop police brutality claims and mass riots every time a suspect or perpetrator gets hit, knocked down, or shot. Context is key.

  • by Anonymous Coward

    The encounters will expose either the cop or the perpetrator. Now if you're a perpetrator you don't want the cop to livestream your encounter. You just want to be able to say cop was bad. Too many situations have brought us to this point of people not telling the truth

    • Re:2 views (Score:4, Informative)

      by gnick ( 1211984 ) on Monday October 08, 2018 @05:14PM (#57447934) Homepage

      Now if you're a perpetrator you don't want the cop to livestream your encounter.

      If you're the perpetrator that gets pulled over for speeding and then shot for smelling like cannabis, you definitely want the cop's camera on.

      • by Anonymous Coward

        shot for smelling like cannabis

        Where do these paranoid fantasies come from? A lot needs improvement in law enforcement, but solving problems begins with talking about them honestly.

        • Re:2 views (Score:4, Informative)

          by gnick ( 1211984 ) on Monday October 08, 2018 @05:35PM (#57448042) Homepage

          Where do these paranoid fantasies come from?

          Fantasies? [washingtonpost.com]

          • I don't mind the cops having a camera on me any more than they should mind me having a camera on them. If it's a sketchy situation, I expect that their evidence will go missing, so I'd better have my own. That aside, the number of incidents like this are a tiny minority of all stops. Cops are human and subject to all manner of human shortcomings and fuck-ups even if they're not actively evil. You're probably being overly paranoid if you expect that to happen to you, as it's probably within an order or two o
            • by gnick ( 1211984 )

              I don't mind the cops having a camera on me any more than they should mind me having a camera on them

              With you 100%. The laws backing cops barring cameras are offensive.

              You're probably being overly paranoid if you expect that to happen to you, as it's probably within an order or two of magnitude of pulling down a huge lotto jackpot.

              Of course it's not going to happen to me. I'm white. Shouldn't happen at all.

            • You're probably being overly paranoid if you expect that to happen to you, as it's probably within an order or two of magnitude of pulling down a huge lotto jackpot.

              Median rate nationwide of officers killing civilians [mappingpol...olence.org] is 3.8 per million people. It's hard to find statistics on lottery winnings - the states running them don't want people to know how bad the odds are - but in most states big winners number in the single digits per year. The biggest state, California, only has about 10 per year. So if you were saying that there were an order of magnitude fewer officer killings, you were wrong. If you were correctly pointing out that it's only slightly more likely than win

        • A lot needs improvement in law enforcement

          American police kill more Americans [washingtonpost.com] than terrorists do.

    • by Cederic ( 9623 )

      Evidence suggests that police body cameras result in better behaviour from the police and from the police with whom they're interacting.

      Something that simple that reduces violence during an arrest is surely a good thing for everybody.

  • Why not activate (Score:5, Insightful)

    by bobstreo ( 1320787 ) on Monday October 08, 2018 @05:08PM (#57447892)

    the body camera as soon as a weapon leaves the holster instead of when it's fired?

    This may end up more entertaining than Russian Car Crash Compilations.

  • Here's an idea.... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by bobbied ( 2522392 ) on Monday October 08, 2018 @05:10PM (#57447904)

    Seems to me that turning it on at the sound of the gun shot might be a bit too late to get the complete picture of if the use of force was justified or not.

    How about they are always recording a 2 min buffer and the sound of a gunshot triggers it to write the buffer and start the recording at a point 2 min in the past..

  • by UnknownSoldier ( 67820 ) on Monday October 08, 2018 @05:13PM (#57447932)

    There is a rumor that the Romans had a double-sided ax that represented two things:

    * Authority
    * Accountability

    Why?

    * Authority without Accountability leads to abuse of power.
    * Accountability without Authority leads to Bureaucracy and constant bikeshedding.

    It's time that people start demanding accountability from those in power -- to keep everyone honest.

  • by Anonymous Coward

    potentially expanding police surveillance

    You misspelled accountability.

    • I wish you were being cynical but sadly you are right.

      The founding fathers share your lament.

      "Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." -- Ben Franklin.

      Ironically it has lost its context [npr.org]

  • by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 08, 2018 @05:29PM (#57448016)

    I thought the whole point of body cameras was to establish what happened during police shootings. Am I missing something? You can't have it both ways; either 1) you get recordings of police (mis)behavior, or 2) you get no recordings and your privacy remains intact. Pick one. Personally, I'd opt for letting the police record their interaction with me. I think it decreases the likelihood that things will end badly for me.

    • I think it needs to go both ways. Citizens need to record their own encounters with the law or it's entirely too convenient for recordings to go missing or for malfunctions to occur. Don't ever count on police evidence to exonerate you. Even if they're not being malicious, spiteful, etc. they're still human and just as capable of lazy mistakes as the next person. Record your interaction with the police.
  • Uhh, shouldn't we be more impressed that the evidence they normally delete is going to be livestreamed instead?

    Like a girl who accidentally (ha! "accidentally!") flashes her nipple on Twitch, and it's on the web FOREVER.

    Granted, it's not necessarily online. But it's at least one step harder to delete incriminating videos when you need TWO or more people "in on it." When a cop can just shut his camera off (why tf was that ever an option?) then do something illegal, a livestreamed, hypothetically, requires th

  • Since all cops are at very least, "bad cop adjacent", this should make for some very interesting Twitch streaming.

  • by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Monday October 08, 2018 @06:26PM (#57448238)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • I'm happy if the authorities want to record what I'm doing for possible use in court against me, provided I am also free to do the same to them.
  • Recording after the gun has been fired is way too late.
    Better would be to trigger recording on certain words/phrases.

  • Don't let the sleazeballs escape their name.
  • Think about it - what do police body cameras record? What's in front of the cop, if the camera is fixed to the chest, or what the cop is looking at, if it's attached to glasses. So this scary "giant panopticon-like surveillance system" still requires the physical presence of a police officer looking at whatever is being surveilled.

    In other words, NO CHANGE.

    It's not like the cameras are going to catch you doing something naughty while you don't think anyone is looking. There will be a cop standing t

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