Police in Ferguson, Mo. have begun wearing body cameras, in part to record the protestors who have flooded their town in the weeks after a white officer killed an unarmed black teen there.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported Sunday that two companies donated about 50 body cameras following teen Michael Brown’s fatal shooting on Aug. 9 by officer Darren Wilson. The devices made their debut on Saturday during a protest monitored by police.
“They are really enjoying them,” Chief Tom Jackson told the Post-Dispatch. “They are trying to get used to using them.”
Jackson added that the cameras picked up scenes of civilians taunting police at Saturday’s protest.
The cameras are battery-powered, attached to an officer’s uniform to record video and audio of an entire shift.
The effectiveness of body cameras has become a nationwide debate in the wake of several police shootings this year, in addition to criticism over policies such as New York City’s stop-and-frisk efforts.
GoProPoPos
It’s a shame they never installed the dashboard cameras that citizens bought for them a couple years ago. A real shame.
Can we get a FOIA request for these tapes? Hate to see some of them answering the call of nature when they forget to turn them off…
A day late; a dashcam short
That would provide the photographic evidence of what we have assumed all along - that they are having to compensate.