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How to handle "Bathroom Breaks" and body cams?

blackjack50

blackjack50

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I have very little issues with body cams. One of the few kinks I do see the system having is handling breaks. An officer will have to use the bathroom at some point. Lunch too. As we are seeing now...this is an issue now because the problem officers are shutting their cameras off at wrong times. So how do you think it should be handled?
 
The body cameras do not run for the entire shift. They are turned on based on the department guidelines.
 
blackjack50 said:
I have very little issues with body cams. One of the few kinks I do see the system having is handling breaks. An officer will have to use the bathroom at some point. Lunch too. As we are seeing now...this is an issue now because the problem officers are shutting their cameras off at wrong times. So how do you think it should be handled?
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As I see it, bathroom breaks should be the only time an officer should shut off his body cam. They are on duty the entire time they are in uniform and could react to a situation even at lunch. What if they say something inappropriate to someone and it is called to light. What if a diner was robbed that they were at? Will they remember to turn it back on? Maybe not. In all honesty the same situation "could" happen even on a bathroom break but I would consider that a moment where privacy outweighs oversight. I don't think the commanding officers and public need to know how many times the cop farted taking a dump. And even then that situation could be abused on know.
 
Praxas said:
As I see it, bathroom breaks should be the only time an officer should shut off his body cam. They are on duty the entire time they are in uniform and could react to a situation even at lunch. What if they say something inappropriate to someone and it is called to light. What if a diner was robbed that they were at? Will they remember to turn it back on? Maybe not. In all honesty the same situation "could" happen even on a bathroom break but I would consider that a moment where privacy outweighs oversight. I don't think the commanding officers and public need to know how many times the cop farted taking a dump. And even then that situation could be abused on know.
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Make everything the officers says and does while the camera is off inadmissible in court and they'd learn to switch it on real quick.
 
Expecting them to have the cameras on for the entire shift is ridiculous.
 
Common Sense 1 said:
The body cameras do not run for the entire shift. They are turned on based on the department guidelines.
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Which is obviously an issue. And it leads to protest too. If an officer camera is off and he has a violent encounter?
 
Praxas said:
As I see it, bathroom breaks should be the only time an officer should shut off his body cam. They are on duty the entire time they are in uniform and could react to a situation even at lunch. What if they say something inappropriate to someone and it is called to light. What if a diner was robbed that they were at? Will they remember to turn it back on? Maybe not. In all honesty the same situation "could" happen even on a bathroom break but I would consider that a moment where privacy outweighs oversight. I don't think the commanding officers and public need to know how many times the cop farted taking a dump. And even then that situation could be abused on know.
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I agree. About the only option for lunch breaks would be having the officer return to station and get an hour for lunch to change and go out into public...really practical. But bathroom breaks could be called in to dispatch potentially. "Dispatch this is 367...I got a code brown."

"Copy that 367...go release the chocolate hostage."
 
Moon said:
Expecting them to have the cameras on for the entire shift is ridiculous.
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Not really. Why should it be off? Assuming it is a DVR recording with 12 hours of footage...could be used as a report system. Attached to each incident. Erased after 6 months unless the incident is red flagged (altercations/interviews).
 
blackjack50 said:
Which is obviously an issue. And it leads to protest too. If an officer camera is off and he has a violent encounter?
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Maybe the other side of this if the camera is on all the time will people share information if they
are afraid that someone may get a copy of the video and find out what they told the officer?
 
Moon said:
Expecting them to have the cameras on for the entire shift is ridiculous.
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Precisely.

If the camera is on for the entire shift, it would die halfway through it. Run your cell phone's camera for 8 hours straight, see how that works out for your battery life.
 
blackjack50 said:
I agree. About the only option for lunch breaks would be having the officer return to station and get an hour for lunch to change and go out into public...really practical. But bathroom breaks could be called in to dispatch potentially. "Dispatch this is 367...I got a code brown."

"Copy that 367...go release the chocolate hostage."
Click to expand...

Nobody gets an hour for lunch in the world of policing are you nuts?

You get to eat between calls... If it is busy? Too ****in' bad bring a sammich and eat while you are driving to your next call.
 
blackjack50 said:
I have very little issues with body cams. One of the few kinks I do see the system having is handling breaks. An officer will have to use the bathroom at some point. Lunch too. As we are seeing now...this is an issue now because the problem officers are shutting their cameras off at wrong times. So how do you think it should be handled?
Click to expand...


They typically require that police turn them on when encountering a person/situation, if reasonably possible. If not, when it becomes possible. They also typically have a buffer that captures the last X seconds even when not switched on.
 
blackjack50 said:
I have very little issues with body cams. One of the few kinks I do see the system having is handling breaks. An officer will have to use the bathroom at some point. Lunch too. As we are seeing now...this is an issue now because the problem officers are shutting their cameras off at wrong times. So how do you think it should be handled?
Click to expand...

Every incident that starts the officer should be legally mandated to hitting the srt recording button. Failure to do so should legally end in fines, loss of hours or firing.
 
blackjack50 said:
I have very little issues with body cams. One of the few kinks I do see the system having is handling breaks. An officer will have to use the bathroom at some point. Lunch too. As we are seeing now...this is an issue now because the problem officers are shutting their cameras off at wrong times. So how do you think it should be handled?
Click to expand...

There's a simple solution. Start by having the camera on all the time. Then allow the officer to shut it off a couple times a day for bathroom breaks. The camera would stay off for a little while before automatically turning back on. For example maybe 4 times a day he can shut his camera off, and each time it will stay off for 10 minutes before automatically turning back on. That would give the officer time to use the bathroom without being recorded, and no worries that he'll forget (or "forget") to turn it back on afterward. If an officer turns the camera off and within those 10 minutes has an incident where he's accused of wrongdoing, that would be a mark against him.

I also wonder if it would be possible to use a microphone to reliably recognize the sound of a gunshot and use that to automatically start the camera recording. Just have like a one-minute buffer, so that if a nearby gunshot is heard by the mike, it immediately starts recording, and that buffer gets saved instead of dumped, so you'd have video of the one minute leading up to when the shots were fired.
 
Caine said:
Precisely.

If the camera is on for the entire shift, it would die halfway through it. Run your cell phone's camera for 8 hours straight, see how that works out for your battery life.
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They sit in the car and they have access to a charger then. Then there is the fact that they do make batteries that last longer than cell batteries.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
Caine said:
Nobody gets an hour for lunch in the world of policing are you nuts?

You get to eat between calls... If it is busy? Too ****in' bad bring a sammich and eat while you are driving to your next call.
Click to expand...

Perhaps that is something that needs to be reviewed? No lunch break? Stress management is already a problem that many officers face. And it impacts their long term health and causes some to react inappropriately if not managed correctly.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
blackjack50 said:
I have very little issues with body cams. One of the few kinks I do see the system having is handling breaks. An officer will have to use the bathroom at some point. Lunch too. As we are seeing now...this is an issue now because the problem officers are shutting their cameras off at wrong times. So how do you think it should be handled?
Click to expand...

In decent world where the word of a police officer isn't considered to be more valuable than the word of a citizen the body camera's are put there as much to protect the police officer as they are to protect the citizen. If a police officer knows they are knows they are acting in good faith they should want the camera on at all times to prove it.

I think maybe a long term solution to the problem is to have the camera's set up remotely so that they can be turned on automatically whenever an officer is responding to some kind of call. It is standard practice for officers to radio in any type of disturbance before they approach a citizen. It could then be the responsibility of the central dispatch to activate their camera for them so they don't forget.
 
blackjack50 said:
Perhaps that is something that needs to be reviewed? No lunch break? Stress management is already a problem that many officers face. And it impacts their long term health and causes some to react inappropriately if not managed correctly.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

Same for teachers... yesterday my interval break was filled by the dean bringing a bad kid in so we could talk to him about doing better and lunch was kids coming in asking how to improve their test assessment results. Both times I am sitting there wolfing food just trying to get a couple of seconds to myself mentally before the next class comes in. Not complaining... just a lot of jobs are that way. Back in restaurants the idea of a break during your shift was not even a consideration. 7 or 8 hours straight of pure non-stop action. Both of those jobs are in the top ten list of stressful jobs too.
 
Bodhisattva said:
Same for teachers... yesterday my interval break was filled by the dean bringing a bad kid in so we could talk to him about doing better and lunch was kids coming in asking how to improve their test assessment results. Both times I am sitting there wolfing food just trying to get a couple of seconds to myself mentally before the next class comes in. Not complaining... just a lot of jobs are that way. Back in restaurants the idea of a break during your shift was not even a consideration. 7 or 8 hours straight of pure non-stop action. Both of those jobs are in the top ten list of stressful jobs too.
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How many carry guns though? I know that the local schools are very strict on breaks being given to teachers. But it may be a planning period. Not lunch.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 
blackjack50 said:
How many carry guns though? I know that the local schools are very strict on breaks being given to teachers. But it may be a planning period. Not lunch.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

At times I am glad I don't carry a gun... these little ****s. :lol:
 
Caine said:
Precisely.

If the camera is on for the entire shift, it would die halfway through it. Run your cell phone's camera for 8 hours straight, see how that works out for your battery life.
Click to expand...

Auxiliary batteries are available everywhere. Most officers are in a vehicle, which is an electronic marvel.
 
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