Great Moments in Law Enforcement
July 25th, 2011


Seriously! Reason has a story up about Oceanside police officer Matthew Lyons doing a perfectly professional job:

Lyons approaches a man who is openly carrying an unloaded handgun in a holster, which is permitted by California law. Lyons checks to make sure the weapon is unloaded, then returns it to the owner, acknowledging his right to carry it. He is polite and professional (cordial, in fact) throughout the three-minute encounter, even when the man says he has no ID and declines to give his last name. Nor does Lyons lose his cool when he notices that the man, who identifies himself only as Jeremy, is recording the encounter. “Well, it should look good on YouTube,” Lyons says. “I’m the first one to be an advocate for that.” It’s not clear whether Lyons means the right to bear arms or the right to record police encounters, but either way he makes no attempt to interfere. He adds, “Make sure you get a good picture of me so you know exactly what I look like, because you’ve got a statement to make here. I’m all for that.” At the end he shakes the guy’s hand, saying, “Jeremy, thanks for your cooperation, and remember: My name is Officer Lyons with the Oceanside Police Department. My badge number is 1093. God bless America.”

Give Officer Lyons a raise.

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Great Moments in Law Enforcement
July 20th, 2011


Glenn Reynolds has the story of a man being illegally arrested (twice!) for legally videotaping police officers. Awesome.

But Radley Balko points us to a genuinely great moment in law enforcement: A cop writing in favor of recording on-duty police work. Some of his key points:

Aren’t we known for saying, “If you’ve got nothing to hide, what are you worried about?” This same mentality should also apply to us. If we’re doing our job professionally and within the law, what’ve we got to worry about if someone’s filming us — especially if they’re doing so without getting in our way? If we decide we don’t like being filmed and take our attention away from what we’re doing, we are the ones delaying ourselves, not the person filming us. If the person is making snide comments, ignore it unless the comments are inciting a riot, but there again it will all be caught on film, right?

Should we ever expect to have a right to privacy when we’re in public? I don’t think so; cops are public employees. We can record comments and statements made by suspects/arrestees sitting in the back of our police cars where there’s no expectation of privacy. . . .

I think back at the number of times I was made aware I was being taped and I can’t recall ever giving a rat’s ass about it. I was also never hauled into IA to watch a video of me misbehaving either. So maybe those of us getting our skirts up over our heads about this should take a long hard look in the mirror before crying foul.

The reality is, cops have very public jobs, like it or not. We’re expected to behave professionally even when faced with overwhelming challenges. The public generally knows we’ve got a tough job, but no one is forcing us to do it. Some people have an axe to grind with police tactics, there’s no changing this mindset, and they’ll do their best to catch us making mistakes, misbehaving, abusing our authority or losing control. It happens sometimes to the best of us. It’s best to admit our mistakes and take our lumps.

Well said.

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Great Moments in Law Enforcement
July 18th, 2011


It’s always seemed pretty obvious to me that the best way to protect citizens against unprofessional cops is to have a recording device on police officers at all time when they’re on duty. A little flip-type camera would be great, but a small digital voice recorder would probably work just as well. The cop turns in on when he punches in, then hands the recorder over when he goes off the clock, the data gets pulled and archived. Ninety-nine times out of a hundred, no one would ever listen to it. But in cases of a dispute, the data would be there to lend clarity.

And having a recording of all police interactions would protect the officers, too. I’m sure that one of the larger downsides of the job is dealing with unfounded complaints of police misconduct. If you’re the type of cop who always conducts himself professionally, being recorded would be a great insurance policy.

But best of all, if everyone knew that police were recording, then I suspect that behavior would be better on both sides of most police encounters. Because both parties would have assurance that the other doesn’t have recourse to lying about it in the future. Cops would probably be more professional, citizens would probably be more respectful and helpful, and, as a consequence, the job of police officers would probably be both easier and more pleasant.

I honestly can’t think of a downside.

So why don’t we record police officers’ interactions with civilians? Because the police would never stand for it. Galley Friend (and police sympathizer) J.S. sends along this post about body cameras from a blogger who claims to be a Chicago police officer. Here’s his verdict:

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.

I suspect this sentiment is widespread among police. If so, it says a lot about the profession.
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Great Moments in Law Enforcement
June 8th, 2011


Police SWAT team breaks down door, at 6:00 a.m., handcuffs man in front of his three small children, and stuff the family into the back of a patrol car for six hours. Why?

Because they were executing a search warrant for the man’s estranged wife. (She was nowhere to be found.) On what grounds? Because the estrange wife defaulted on her student loans. Seriously.

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