Since last fall, police in New York’s Orange County have been using experimental gun-mounted camera technology that begins recording the moment a police officer’s gun is pulled from its holster.
The technology was adopted after a public outcry surrounding the 2006 shooting of a Newbugrh, New York man in which, “the street version of the story differs massively from the one told by the cops,” according to The Register.
Washington, DC NBC News affiliate WRC is now reporting that a bill has been put in front of the DC Council that “would require police service revolvers to have miniature cameras to record how the weapons are used” in order to “provide a clear record for both police and citizens on how police weapons are used.”
The system that’s currently in place in New York is just being tested and isn’t widely deployed yet. The DC bill would likely call for a more widespread adoption, though.
Will they be getting real guns to?
Seems like the next logical step after in car cameras, which have been highly valuable evidence for court cases as well as spotting bad or poorly trained cops as well.
Hope they record anytime they are not in the holster, and that the video of the cops handling them during shift change etc is also review from time to time.
Might prevent the tragedy a Boston 10 year veteran inflicted on himself while ‘dressing’ this month.
He died from the self-inflicted wound. After 10 years on the force this argues for either abysmally (even criminally) poor training or just suicide. But still we would know that too.
It’s kind of a non-issue, since D.C. police don’t carry “service revolvers” anymore. They carry service pistols. The cartridges are stacked in a vertical magazine inside the handle; nothing revolves in this kind of gun.
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As a prior LEO, I think this would be an excellent idea. This will remove the “he said/she said” scenarios and provide a much better position for both the citizen and officer during the encounter.
A part of me wishes I had a set-up like that when I was in law enforcement.