• gkd@lemmy.ml
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    1 year ago

    The cost of a body cam doesn’t have anything to do with policies on whether or not they can be turned off.

    • Lyrl@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      The cost isn’t the cam itself, it’s the servers and their software and IT administrators to maintain them, the personnel to audit the videos, and the personnel to respond to records requests by being able to locate archived files and redeact private information of the people the police interact with in the requested videos. Spinning up and maintaining multiple departments that just didn’t exist before a body cam program was implemented is a significant resource draw.

      If the auditing personnel aren’t hired in sufficient numbers, or the IT personnel to keep the video archives actually usable, then turning off of bodycams won’t ever be caught.

      • gkd@lemmy.ml
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        1 year ago

        But what does that have to do with a bodycam being turned off during an incident? We see them clearly disable them or cover them on their own. I’m not saying they need to be turned on 24/7, that’s obviously not feasible.