Is there actually anything that can be done? If he hasn't committed a crime doesn't that mean essentially he's cleared and the Guild won't allow anything at all to happen to him?
@1: Maybe hook a switch to the snap-strap on their gun holster. They draw their gun for any reason, or even get ready to draw it, we get the situation on tape automatically.
sickening you can get away with murder. yes to an important extent this is a police state. we need protection from the police, and apparently the law doesn't do that.
Officers are required by SPD policy to always use the (existing) in-car video system, for all citizen contacts, including their approach to the scene whenever possible, and report technical failures at the beginning of their shift, or immediately in cases where the system deactivates when they're on the street.
It is also SPD policy that officers are to be disciplined when they improperly fail to create recordings... so I can't imagine that SPD policy for officer-worn cameras would be any weaker than what they have today for the in-car cameras.
(By the way, if you go through old issues of The Guardian, you can find much evidence of just how much our cops hate being recorded on the job. Apparently they preferred the old days, where we just took their word for everything. Go figure.)
(You can see the policy stuff for yourself. Here's the SPD Policy & Procedure Manual. Section 17.260 covers in-car video.)
@9 Double that. This situation leaves anyone downtown wondering whether some loose cannon cop is going to drop them. Such a cop just cost the city of Everett $500,000, and several such settlements took place back in 1999. This use of deadly force was (in the FRB's words) "unjustified and outside of policy, tactics and training". The BART cop in Oakland got 2 years for his mistake. And Birk's just going to lose his job??
Shoulda woulda coulda - probably too late.
Officers are required by SPD policy to always use the (existing) in-car video system, for all citizen contacts, including their approach to the scene whenever possible, and report technical failures at the beginning of their shift, or immediately in cases where the system deactivates when they're on the street.
It is also SPD policy that officers are to be disciplined when they improperly fail to create recordings... so I can't imagine that SPD policy for officer-worn cameras would be any weaker than what they have today for the in-car cameras.
(By the way, if you go through old issues of The Guardian, you can find much evidence of just how much our cops hate being recorded on the job. Apparently they preferred the old days, where we just took their word for everything. Go figure.)
(You can see the policy stuff for yourself. Here's the SPD Policy & Procedure Manual. Section 17.260 covers in-car video.)
IAN BIRK = MURDERER