Merry Christmas: Cameras for Everyone

[Unregistered]

Great move mayor. When an officer has the the slightight bit of hesitation because of the stupid camera costs them their life, what will you say then? Guess you can be tranparent to the segment of the community that got bicycle stops ruled racist. Hey, let's just stop arresting them and let them deal their drugs, kill people, commit gang violence and perpetuate the general stereotype of criminals. Again, thanks a lot mayor.

[Unregistered]

I'm not against wearing cameras, as long as every single government employee wears one as well... Including the Mayor.. Law Enforcement should not be single out... It should be all or none..

[Unregistered]

Good move on Castor's part.

Body cameras will not affect the officers who play by the rules only those who do not. The body cameras will save the agency money on frivolous civil lawsuits and discourage false allegations against the officers. It's a win for everyone that is why many agencies are buying body cameras.

[Unregistered]

Good move on Castor's part.

Body cameras will not affect the officers who play by the rules only those who do not. The body cameras will save the agency money on frivolous civil lawsuits and discourage false allegations against the officers. It's a win for everyone that is why many agencies are buying body cameras.

Whatever you say Castor. Better think again.

[Unregistered]

The department is already using body cams to micromanage and write up officers for complaintless minor policy violations / or unfounded officer safety concerns.

The crime will go up because officers will not want to do more than required and risk getting written up and arm chair quarter backed for months over the split second decision that they had to make.

Like someone said, who wants to have a job where everything you do is recorded? Its not about us hiding anything. 99.9% of the cops do the right thing. Punish the .01%. It is a simple principle that people dont want to be recorded so the command staff can second guess everything they did. Politicians should wear body cams! Doctors as well! Over 250,000 people die each year due to medical malpractice. You would think public would be in uproar and demand body cameras for doctors, but they dont.

The small vocal liberal leaders pander to the small vocal community in the bad neighborhood to appease them with body cameras. In Chicago alone more blacks are murdered by other blacks during the same time span as Iraq war, but they media and Obama DOJ was silent. Instead they focused on Ferguson, Baltimore, and Louisiana. The martyrs for body cams in their cases were mostly convicted felons and La case the perp was armed!

Yet, Obama blamed rasict Lousiana Police for shooting the black perp who was reaching for a gun! All he was doing is selling bootleg CDs and trespassing. Obama's policies and statements led to the shooting deaths of cops in Baton Rogue, Dallas, and across the nation in unprecedented attacks on law enforcement. Even TPD decided that all patrol officers will ride 2-man!

But fear not, body cams will fix everything. Dont come crying and asking why the crime is up in the city. The vocal minority that wants body cams would also be against them being recorded all day at their jobs, be it milkman, attorney, mechanic, airplane pilot. It is simply inhumane.

[Unregistered]

I have been here for 15+ yrs and consider myself a professional officer. I am not to worried about hesitating in life or death situations. I worry that our brass will knit pick every little thing. I am more worried about how our choice of words will be perceived by the brass, even though we have been using the same verbiage for yrs, with no issues. I worry about our private conversations that are accidentally recorded. I also feel the system is not user friendly. From what I know, you have to input event numbers and type of call on EVERY recording. With all this said, even the most professional, by the book officers, will now being doing less in fear of getting in trouble for some minor BS and/or the hassle of it all.

[guest99897654y665]

This reply is spot-on! Supervisors are now required to proactively look for policy violations on a daily basis. They will not overlook small things because they will ultimately be held accountable.

I consider myself to be an average police officer. I'm not lazy and I handle my zone. The environment has driven me to be much less proactive than I was previously, but I still do stops and put forth effort. I will not do a single bit of proactive police work once I receive my camera. Not because I'm shady or don't follow the rules, but because I could make a great arrest, write a great report, testify and successfully send the bad guy to jail.....just to be found 'discourteous to the public' because I cursed in the heat of the moment after a foot chase and a supervisor caught it while reviewing BWC footage.

When we are T17, I will no longer work faster to clear calls or 'advise' to free other units. If every officer follows suit, maybe the city will realize how good they had it.

Also from a budget standpoint, it's laughable that some officers are driving unreliable cars that are 10+ years old and some specialty units 'can't afford' to pay team members, yet we can come up with nearly $2 million to fund body cams to appease a small group of people.

The department is already using body cams to micromanage and write up officers for complaintless minor policy violations / or unfounded officer safety concerns.

The crime will go up because officers will not want to do more than required and risk getting written up and arm chair quarter backed for months over the split second decision that they had to make.

Like someone said, who wants to have a job where everything you do is recorded? Its not about us hiding anything. 99.9% of the cops do the right thing. Punish the .01%. It is a simple principle that people dont want to be recorded so the command staff can second guess everything they did. Politicians should wear body cams! Doctors as well! Over 250,000 people die each year due to medical malpractice. You would think public would be in uproar and demand body cameras for doctors, but they dont.

The small vocal liberal leaders pander to the small vocal community in the bad neighborhood to appease them with body cameras. In Chicago alone more blacks are murdered by other blacks during the same time span as Iraq war, but they media and Obama DOJ was silent. Instead they focused on Ferguson, Baltimore, and Louisiana. The martyrs for body cams in their cases were mostly convicted felons and La case the perp was armed!

Yet, Obama blamed rasict Lousiana Police for shooting the black perp who was reaching for a gun! All he was doing is selling bootleg CDs and trespassing. Obama's policies and statements led to the shooting deaths of cops in Baton Rogue, Dallas, and across the nation in unprecedented attacks on law enforcement. Even TPD decided that all patrol officers will ride 2-man!

But fear not, body cams will fix everything. Dont come crying and asking why the crime is up in the city. The vocal minority that wants body cams would also be against them being recorded all day at their jobs, be it milkman, attorney, mechanic, airplane pilot. It is simply inhumane.

[Unregistered]

Good move on Castor's part.

Body cameras will not affect the officers who play by the rules only those who do not. The body cameras will save the agency money on frivolous civil lawsuits and discourage false allegations against the officers. It's a win for everyone that is why many agencies are buying body cameras.

This is not true. This city has caved and paid people money many many many MANY times in totally justified shootings. They do this under the false ideology it is cheaper to settle the complaint. However, that just fuels shitzu bag attorneys to keep filing these suits.

[Unregistered]

Hundreds of cameras recording virtually everything have been operating for years at the jail with no problems at all. Only the bad apples have to worry and do things right. Castor feels it is time to bring patrol up to the same high standards of transparency as the jail. Patrol has always been the public face of the agency so body cameras make sense.

[Unregistered]

Body cams captured the savagery of our 43rd street citizens last night and the pelting of officers with water balloons and buckets of water to the point that they couldnt get out of the cars. The officers were ASSAULTED by a youth who found it funny to hit the officers with water balloons. He was properly arrested for the assault on the police and then released by Staff because afterall "it was only water" rather than back the officers. Or to appease the very same citizens that found it appropriate to pelt the police with water ballons. Way to back your officers. What are the officers supposed to do tonight when it all plays out all over again?