London Police To Wear Video Cameras In Pilot Project 152
An anonymous reader writes "The London Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) is reportedly engaging in a year-long pilot program to determine the benefits of its police force wearing video cameras during interactions with the public. 'The pilot will include a total of 500 cameras distributed across ten city boroughs.' London joins some major U.S. cities in this endeavor to improve the quality of policing through the use of wearable cameras. Privacy advocates argue, however, that police officers having these devices on their persons is not enough: 'the efficacy of police body-mounted cameras as a crime reduction and accountability tool hinges on enforcement of good policies and procedures—including something as basic as preventing officers from being able to deactivate the cameras at their own discretion.'"
preventing officers from being able to deactivate (Score:5, Interesting)
I think it is unlikely that police would deactivate it without good reason. Where cameras have been used they have resulted in a large reduction in complaints [bbc.co.uk] against police . If they were widely used then switching them off would be seen as suspicious if a complaint was received.
There are some times when an officer might want to switch it off - for example when taking a toilet break or dealing with a vulnerable victim. Ideally switching on should be easy; a "one touch" operation, but switching off harder (hold two buttons for 10 seconds) so it cannot be done (or claimed to have been done) accidentally.
A step in the right direction (Score:5, Interesting)
Perhaps an unpopular opinion but I think this is overall a good thing. It will require more discipline from police and help reduce the number of unjustified police action.
As the same time this will serve to catch criminals and is a precursor to automatic face recognition (like they have with car number plates)
Just remember the next time you see police, you're on camera.
Re:Can't turn them off? (Score:5, Interesting)
One possible solution to the 'recording everything' issue is to encrypt things as they are recorded, and to require a representative from the police and a representative from a civil liberties organisation to provide keys in order to decrypt the video. That way, even constantly-recording video couldn't be used for wholesale surveillance (theoretically).
I imagine the intention is that video would only be viewed if a complaint was made or there was some contention about the events between a member of the public and the police so having a bit of an overhead for viewing the videos wouldn't be unreasonable (I don't think).
Turning camera off (Score:5, Interesting)
Turning a camera off - this should work the same as things like medical hotlines. For most hotlines, every call is recorded. You, as a patient, can request that the recording be turned off. Your request will be recorded, and then nothing more (at least, that's how it is supposed to work).
It should be the same for police officers: Sure, there are times they may need to turn the camera's off, but the reason should be clear and should itself be recorded. In the absence of a justification, the camera should always run.
Re:Can't turn them off? (Score:2, Interesting)
I'm shocked they can't turn them off. They must be able to turn them off to protect the public's privacy.
Clue: Not all video is uploaded to Youtube.