police

"In response to a flood of Facebook and YouTube videos that depict police abuse, a new trend in law enforcement is gaining popularity. In at least three states, it is now illegal to record any on-duty police officer.

Even if the encounter involves you and may be necessary to your defense, and even if the recording is on a public street where no expectation of privacy exists.

"Eric Rachner, a Seattle cyber security expert and one of the golf players, wasn't satisfied when the city dismissed charges against him after a possibly illegal arrest for refusing to provide identification.

Rachner discovered through sleuthing that police had withheld video-recorded evidence in his case.

Rachner also hired Seattle attorney Cleveland Stockmeyer to look at his case and probably others where arrests might have been illegal or where police claimed to have destroyed valuable arrest videos that weren't, in fact, erased.

Another reason why we need police surveillance, by which I mean surveillance of the police, not by the police.  Also, why are riot police allowed to hide behind their riot gear?  They need huge ID numbers ala football jerseys so they can't act out with anonymity.

I don't understand why we place so much trust in the police... I know the bad apples are a tiny minority of the force, but when a single action from an officer has the potential to destroy someones life (e.g. lying under oath or planting evidence), it seems we need more than just their "word" as an officer of the law.  The only really good use of surveillance I've seen is in Brittain where officers have cameras on their hats to film what they do... why require trust when technology can give us actual evidence?

Maybe this is the reason behind those stupid photographer arrests?

http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=news/investigators&id=7305356

I think more eyes on our watchers is a good thing to be encouraged... do bad some boys in blue don't see it that way...

Simon Glik, a lawyer, was walking down Tremont Street in Boston when he saw three police officers struggling to extract a plastic bag from a teenager’s mouth. Thinking their force seemed excessive for a drug arrest, Glik pulled out his cellphone and began recording.

I was extremely impressed by the police response to my attempted mugging in new haven a few years ago - ~4 cars arrived within about a minute of my calling, and they immediately started a sweep of the area looking for the teens who approached me.  That said, I keep reading accounts of police abusing their powers and antagonizing the people they are supposed to protect.  I believe that they think they're doing the right things, and that their actions are serving the common good, but I think they just have a fundamental distrust of much of society and of the people in the communities that eff

"The Guardian has obtained this police footage of Emily Apple and Val Swain being arrested by surveillance officers after asking for their badge numbers at the Kingsnorth climate camp last year. The two women speak to Paul Lewis about their arrest, imprisonment and official complaint"

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/video/2009/jun/21/fit-watch-kingsn...

"The Maryland State Police surveillance of advocacy groups was far more extensive than previously acknowledged, with records showing that troopers monitored -- and labeled as terrorists -- activists devoted to such wide-ranging causes as promoting human rights and establishing bike lanes."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/03/AR200901...

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/07/AR200810...

Brittain does something good for people's rights for a change

"DNA profiles of almost a million innocent people are to be destroyed as part of a major overhaul of the police national database. They include people who have been arrested and never charged, and those taken to court but found not guilty."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/may/03/dna-profiles-destroyed