Money for tear gas, riot gear, armored vehicles and machine guns but not a dashcam

[tinydancer]

Awesome piece by Mark Steyn. He really hits it out of the ball park and whether you are left or right I think we could be unanimous in agreeing that every police car in America should have a dash cam.

Here's how he nails it. And I think it's more than a fair question to ask the Ferguson police department why they do not have recording equipment.

"The most basic problem is that we will never know for certain what happened. Why? Because the Ferguson cruiser did not have a camera recording the incident. That’s simply not credible.

“Law” “enforcement” in Ferguson apparently has at its disposal tear gas, riot gear, armored vehicles and machine guns …but not a dashcam.

That’s ridiculous. I remember a few years ago when my one-man police department in New Hampshire purchased a camera for its cruiser. It’s about as cheap and basic a police expense as there is. . .

. In 2014, when a police cruiser doesn’t have a camera, it’s a conscious choice. And it should be regarded as such.

And, if we have to have federal subsidy programs for municipal police departments, we should scrap the one that gives them the second-hand military hardware from Tikrit and Kandahar and replace it with one that ensures every patrol car has a camera."

Steyn on Ferguson and police militarization: “You’re doing it wrong.” - The Washington Post

 

[Rikurzhen]

Bad-ass military gear is more fun to play with, ahem, I mean train with. This was bad management decision making. Playing soldier is now going to come back and bite that department. One of their own is going to be hung out to dry, to be mauled by mindless liberals and blacks, and it all could have been avoided with a dash-cam. Hey, at least they have an IED-proof battle-wagon and awesome sniper rifle that they can play with.

 

[Delta4Embassy]

Awesome piece by Mark Steyn. He really hits it out of the ball park and whether you are left or right I think we could be unanimous in agreeing that every police car in America should have a dash cam.

Here's how he nails it. And I think it's more than a fair question to ask the Ferguson police department why they do not have recording equipment.

"The most basic problem is that we will never know for certain what happened. Why? Because the Ferguson cruiser did not have a camera recording the incident. That’s simply not credible.

“Law” “enforcement” in Ferguson apparently has at its disposal tear gas, riot gear, armored vehicles and machine guns …but not a dashcam.

That’s ridiculous. I remember a few years ago when my one-man police department in New Hampshire purchased a camera for its cruiser. It’s about as cheap and basic a police expense as there is. . .

. In 2014, when a police cruiser doesn’t have a camera, it’s a conscious choice. And it should be regarded as such.

And, if we have to have federal subsidy programs for municipal police departments, we should scrap the one that gives them the second-hand military hardware from Tikrit and Kandahar and replace it with one that ensures every patrol car has a camera."

Steyn on Ferguson and police militarization: “You’re doing it wrong.” - The Washington Post

I'd imagine the answer will be 'you have to priortize purchases.' You need guns, tear gas, pepper spray, body armor, cars, vehicles, etc. While cameras are great, they aren't vital necessities. Plus if the government's giving away military vehicles, if your dept needs one to do whatever and you can get it for free and only pay to make it do whatever ya need it to, you take the freebie.

Admittedly I'm baffled how any squad car in LA doesn't have a camera already as most do not, but the personal 'badge cams' costs $950 per so if the car version costs at least that much, times however many cars they have equals rather a lot of money. I'd imagine any 1 billionaire could easily outfit every police dept in the country without suffering but goodluck finding one.

"According to a report by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, 61% of local police departments regularly used dashcams in 2007. These departments used approximately 41,000 dashcams. Police departments across the United States operated an estimated 286,000 cars in 2007 which means that only about a quarter of police vehicles were outfitted with dashcams."
Dashcams | Massachusetts Cop Block

So about $240 million to outfit every police car in the US with a $1000 dashcam. If we all chipped in a buck...