Why 22% of LAPD Officers Are Not Turning on Their Body Camera
How police officers wrongs turn into more wrongs stemming from ill intent
Much is now coming to light and long overdue. Injustice against one person is injustice against every person so eloquently stated by Dr. Martin Luther King and is true in every sense of the word.
According to the news media, it has been announced that LAPD officers are failing to turn on or activate their body cameras during serious altercations. Why?
It seems that these officers are willfully disobeying the mandates and policy of the police department. Also, it appears that they are doing so in cases where they do not desire for their ill will to be captured on the video camera. If they are doing good, why wouldn’t they turn on their video camera? Likewise, if they are doing wrong or injustice to another, why would they allow the camera to capture who they really are masquerading behind the badge?
Turning on the video camera is a requirement to do the job along with the usage of their gun, pepper spray, and baton. Failure to comply with the job requirements should result in some departmental ramifications that could lead eventually to departure from the police force.
22% , a fourth, of the Los Angeles police officers are not doing their duty according to the rules of the badge. If you are doing something right, why not turn on the camera but it you have will intent in a situation, justifies why the camera stays off or turned on after the fact or much damaged has been done in a public domain.
Looking at this from the perspective of a police officer who is doing wrong, why turn on the camera and be found guilty of public abuse in some manner. The proof would be obvious in the pudding because the camera would confirm such so why incriminate oneself when there is an avenue to get around and continue the misdeeds by not turning on the body camera at all or delayed after an altercation.
A scary thought is that police officers got out to calls in the public in groups of two or more and none are turning on their camera. There have been situations where law enforcement of late where multiple police officers arrived on a scene of a public situation and all had their cameras off. This seems like a pack of some sort, or an unwritten rule between officers not to do so. It is hard to believe that in a pack of officers and not one turned on their camera because they forgot or the camera was not working or some other lame justification. Turned off cameras, not turned on cameras, or delayed turned on cameras bespeak that the police officer’s behavior may contain will intent in a situation where excessive force occurred.
The civilian Police Commission reviewed the actions of 262 officers where the possibility of will intent or excessive force may have been an issue, they found 53 cases plus 33 police shootings, between June 2020 and July 2021. Also, was found that 218 officers were equipped with body cams, 7 failed to activate the body cam at all, and 41 delayed turnings on the body cameras without justification.
Therefore of late, public recordings of police interactions with the public have increased astronomically. The public is very aware that some of the police officers have ill-will intent toward the public in some areas and are willfully not turning on their cameras to get away with murder, literally in some cases.
It is great to hear that in the Los Angles police department, the assigned Commission is leading the charge in mandating that LA Police officers need to follow the rules of the uniform by turning on their cameras and activating their in-car radio devices when dealing with the public. Also, in other states, Attorney Generals are taking the charge to stop the police abuse by not only investigating these situations but mandating cameras to be turned on.
The body camera is part of the police officer’s equipment and must be complied with as mandated by the job to keep the cameras powered since 2018. Failure to do so should be punishable by suspension after three incidents or when excessive force was prevalent in an altercation.
According to this study, out of 51 cases reviewed, 33 of the officers in the field failed to activate their cameras or just kept them off, breaking policy. When these cameras remain on, they record a two-minute loop that is automatically saved. This study also proved that the studied cases confirmed that 14% of the officers who are required to activate their cameras, willfully did not activate them.
In addition to the requirement of keeping their body camera on, they are required to activate their in-car video systems whenever appropriate, inclusive of pedestrian stops.
These LA police officers not turning their cameras on are breaking the law, then how can the public trust them to do their job effectively and equally toward all the people when they are breaking the law themselves.
It does not take a master scientist or mathematician to figure out why these LA officers are not turning on their cameras and radios when there is an interaction with the public in certain areas.
According to LA Police Officer Chief, Michael Moore, discipline for the ill behavior of these officers who are not turning on their cameras or are delaying turning on their cameras will be disciplined in some manner.
In conclusion, discipline is good but a slap on the wrist does nothing to deter the ill behavior of police officers who willfully continue to disobey the rules of the badge, therefore the public must demand stringent disciplinary actions along with the commission and attorney generals.
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