Remember how all kids at the kindergarten wanted to become a policeman one day? Who wouldn’t like to wear the uniform, be strong and get bad guys behind bars? As we all get older, we grow to understand that police work is dangerous, responsible, and holds a large number of risks. But, unlike, for example, playing at online casinos, those risks do not bring money and fun like las atlantis casino bonus promotion. Moreover, in the public space, there are reports of improperly implemented interventions and unauthorized use of coercion, including direct coercion measures. At the same time, officers of uniformed services or security personnel, while performing their duties, often encounter hostility, physical attacks, violations of inviolability, and other aggressive behavior. Usually, after the intervention, they are accused of misconduct.
What Is the Main Purpose of Police Body Cameras?
We already know that body cameras are important, but what are the main purposes of wearing body cameras for police officers? The most important are listed below:
- having body cameras on when there is direct contact between the officer and the citizen, the police officers begin to behave more responsibly and professionally, and the number of violent interventions by officers and the number of complaints of citizens against police officers decreases;
- citizens show much less aggression and vulgar behavior and are more willing to cooperate. As a result, citizens’ trust in police officers is recovering and increasing;
- more people are more likely to report crimes to the police;
- the ability to use the new equipment as an effective evidence-gathering tool, an increase in the number of people pleading guilty before the start of a criminal trial, more arrests, and convictions, and overall time savings such as shortening court procedures or limiting the number of notes and documents filled in by police officers;
- recordings from video cameras can be used for training purposes in the police, to assess the service of young police officers, or to correct unethical or non-compliant behavior of other officers.
The cameras that police officers carry daily, in addition to collecting evidence of what is happening, should inform the department in real time about the police officer’s location and their condition. Many experts talk about it. They often criticize that the device captures only evidence while “live” monitoring is completely absent. With the right approach, a law enforcement officer will be able to receive video recordings that will prove the legitimacy of his actions or, conversely, abuse of power. In reality, controlling various situations with the help of video cameras is beyond the interest of the police authorities.
If the camera is used constantly, the management can control their subordinates. In the event of any incidents, the operational control center will instantly receive information about this. A police officer, finding himself in an emergency, can ask for advice on what to do. It does not require a device that records video in good quality. Enough camera with GPS, capable of broadcasting in real-time with sound. The scope of wearable cameras is not limited to police officers alone. Unfortunately, devices for which large sums of money are spent are not fully used these days for many reasons, but the most important one is data safety issues.
Safety Issues of Police Body Cameras
The registrar protects police officers, protects citizens from misconduct by law enforcement officers, helps fight corruption, and acts as evidence of violations. Still, experts say hackers easily break into surveillance cameras on police badges and can change video recordings.
Nuix consultant and security specialist Josh Mitchell found vulnerabilities in cameras from five of the most popular manufacturers in the US: Vievu, Patrol Eyes, Fire Cam, Digital Ally, and CeeSc. He said that thanks to these vulnerabilities, he is able to connect to cameras, view recordings, modify recordings, and make changes to the file structure. The main problem for all manufacturers of body cameras for police officers is the need for more encryption in their products for software verification. Unfortunately, this will allow attackers to access the cameras themselves and use them as a tool for spreading malicious code.
The simplest thing an attacker can do is remove videos that could be evidence of a crime. He can also falsify evidence through video spoofing. Thus, police cameras can be used for the benefit of criminals. In the end, you can just watch the actions of the police and the location of the employees. If you dig deeper, hacked cameras can become carriers of malware that can spread throughout the police network and give attackers access to cameras and everything else.
What Are the Alternatives for Police Body Cameras?
Always looking for a better solution, police started testing gun-mounted cameras as an alternative to police body cameras. Some police departments are showing interest in a new type of camera that can be mounted directly on police officers’ weapons. Some argue that they will make it possible to assess the situation more reliably if there is a shootout involving a police officer. In turn, some representatives of the judiciary and civil rights movements are quite skeptical about this solution.
The main problem is that the cameras only start recording when the gun is drawn and cannot capture the situation that made it escalate. Skeptics claim that cameras placed on weapons can only be a supplement to body cameras. On the other hand, people supporting the project say that the amount of space the recording takes up is much smaller, significantly reducing the data storage cost.
Some models of gun-mounted cameras have a system that instantly alerts nearby police via Wi-Fi and Bluetooth when an officer pulls out a gun and needs help. In the case of a body camera, the officer’s arms, walls, and other objects may obscure the view that should be recorded. It may also happen that it will not be included, supporters of the project claim. One of the advantages of gun-mounted cameras is that you can see what happened. For example, we can see the police officer’s point of view while aiming his gun.
Gun-mounted cameras have been used in target shooting for years but have never made it to law enforcement. So instead, some police departments use cameras mounted on stun guns that start recording when the device is unlocked. Cameras mounted under the barrel of a gun cost about $500, which is about the same as wearing them. Some also emit high-powered light, so officers do not have to hold a gun and a flashlight simultaneously.
Soon, the police might also get stun guns / Shutterstock with cameras to avoid lawsuits for violent intervention. Police use this weapon worldwide, and it is much safer for both the detainee and the police officer than a gun. Unlike firearms, they will not be assigned to a specific officer but collected before going on patrol. They are safer for incapacitated people because they do not kill or injure. But they are also safer for the policeman himself. A new feature is an additional function of recording the entire incident. It is activated when the weapon is started before the shot is fired. Thanks to this, later, it will be possible to impartially assess the legitimacy of using the stun gun. In addition, the taser can be used to record contentious situations. Often, officers are accused of brutality or rude behavior – says an officer of the Internal Affairs Bureau, who also deals with such cases. However, so far, the policemen themselves have protested, for example, against placing cameras in police cars. Trade unions spoke on their behalf, and eventually, the idea was dropped.
Tasers are often used when detaining people under the influence of alcohol, with mental disorders, or against people with melee weapons. Modern stun guns act on human skeletal muscles, causing their complete blockage. In the USA, there were cases when people who were shot while under the influence of strong drugs continued to attack a police officer. In the case of a taser, this is impossible. What’s more, the bigger the person, the stronger the taser works. Before the officers get such weapons, they have to undergo specialized training. It will be taken care of by the Police Schoo, which has the qualifications of a “master instructor”. Instructors can train there, who then pass on their knowledge to individual police officers. The police have been legally allowed to use stun guns in their service for several years now. They are treated equally with other means of direct coercion, such as a baton.
Knowing today that police body-worn cameras are a social justice matter, app developers are aiming to provide officers with cheaper alternatives to body cams as well. They are also a part of the discussion about the growing use of law enforcement surveillance and the untold possibilities of artificial intelligence.
Up to 20 video service developers aim to bring police video recordings to mobile phones without the burden of storing them. Their service is growing and looks only to continue. For example, a company named Callyo wants to make it even easier for law enforcement to film their activities, and it has launched an app to do just that. The app they are working on acts as an alternative to body cams, allowing law enforcement to capture video on their cellphones without storing it on those phones. Users can stream unlimited videos for free and keep them for three days. Upgrades offer the ability to store them for longer, download them and manage records and users.
The Future Additions and Alternatives for Body Cameras
With great tendencies and the development of new equipment for police, everyone operating in public spaces and intervening against citizens will be equipped with communication transmitters integrated with other devices used by a security officer or employee. In real-time material transmission – video and audio signal streaming to the control station, the body-worn camera will allow for professional, accurate management of selected elements of interventions, actions, or safety operations. Functionalities based on remote switching on the device or access to the video stream may be important in emergencies, e.g., lack of contact with an employee.
Cloud services will also be the future in many aspects of our lives. For example, collecting the material from the intervention in the cloud will greatly facilitate its processing, and the indicated possibilities of remote access to the image from the camera will optimize the management of devices and police activities. Furthermore, data analysis will be supported to a much wider extent than before by artificial intelligence (AI), which will result in, among others, the automation of information processing processes. It will reduce the time employees are involved in analytical and supervisory activities. In addition, AI will affect the quality of the presented data and allow you to generate precise reports.
The use of deep learning technology and the combination of data from many sensors and data sources to analyze data – real data integration – in the future will enable predicting events and behavior of people subjected to intervention. It is also the profiling of perpetrators and their behavior in real-time, and using personal communication devices in this area seems desirable and interesting. But, of course, we must remember the protection of personal data and the concern for the fundamental rights of each of us.
The discussed solutions and the prospect of widespread use of body-worn cameras require awareness-raising and educational activities in society and in relation to officers and employees who are afraid of new technological solutions and do not want to be constantly monitored and supervised by remote audio-video systems.
It is essential to find appropriate procedures acceptable to all parties. Body-worn cameras are, in fact, a concern for the legal safety of police officers and other officers as well as security personnel, a chance to reduce the level of emotions and aggression during interventions, and a guarantee for citizens in terms of the possibility of verifying how activities are conducted at the scene of the incident.
