- Before hitting the streets, Oakland police officer Huy Nuygen's routine usually goes something like this:
Gun ready? Check. Bulletproof vest strapped? Check.
Body camera secured? Check.
Wait, body camera?
This isn't like the "bluetooth-type" cameras we wrote about years ago. This is a camera about the size of a current microphone package actually attached to your vest that films everything when activated. And how are they selling it to coppers in Oakland? It's all for your safety!
- Whether attached to shirt lapels or small headsets, the cameras are intended to provide more transparency and security to officers on the street and to reduce the number of misconduct complaints and potential lawsuits.
"First and foremost, it protects the officers, it protects the citizens and it can help with an investigation and it shows what happened," said Steve Tidwell, executive director of the FBI National Academy Associates in Quantico, Va. "It can level the playing field, instead of getting just one or two versions. It's all there in living color, so to speak."
In Oakland, where the department is still under federal supervision because of a case in which four officers were caught planting drugs on suspects a decade ago, the cameras are like another set of eyes, said Capt. Ed Tracey.
Well, if a feeb is recommending it, what could possibly go wrong? And if a member of management adds his two cents worth, well golly, this must be flawless!
Once again, it falls to the sane who walk among the thin blue line to point out that these provide exactly the same amount of "protection" to officers as our Blue Light Cameras offer to the citizenry - that is to say, "none." This device is a witness that might provide assistance in the event of a bad beef in Oakland, but we can still count on one hand exactly how many prosecutions have been brought against bad beefers who have lied on sworn affidavits against CPD members.
Once again, it falls to the sane who walk among the thin blue line to point out that these provide exactly the same amount of "protection" to officers as our Blue Light Cameras offer to the citizenry - that is to say, "none." This device is a witness that might provide assistance in the event of a bad beef in Oakland, but we can still count on one hand exactly how many prosecutions have been brought against bad beefers who have lied on sworn affidavits against CPD members.