Dash or cell cam the police during an incident?

JOCCO

Well-known Member
Am wondering about all this camera on the police going on. Say they make a traffic stop (you) and you are taping the whole thing can they ask you to shut it off, can they take the devise, is it legal? What about if a warden or sheriff comes to question you? What about taping them while they are doing say a warrant or an arrest down the street. I had one (no camera). Went to local store got a some lunch it was noon so I sat in my truck in the yard and had lunch. A dot officer pulled a log truck over and into the parking lot to weigh him. Right long side of me and I watched it all and chewed on my sandwich. The statie was kind of nervous and kept looking at me ( I was only feet away) he was very polite to the trucker and that was that. Truck was not over weight!!! But he sure didn't like being watched. Probably thought I had a cell cam??
 
I wish there were cameras all over the place, even cameras on cars. It would put an end to protestors and people suing for no reason.

State police has 360 cameras on some cars. Not sure if they still do, but the camera would scan for stolen cars, expired plates and Amber alerts. I can only see positive things cameras can do. Even if it means cops and criminals need to clean up their act.
 
In today's society why wouldn't he be nervous? Look at the terrible things that have happened to some good law enforcement people. I dont know the legality of cameras but they sure help sort things out- good and bad.
 
(quoted from post at 11:10:17 11/24/16) Am wondering about all this camera on the police going on. Say they make a traffic stop (you) and you are taping the whole thing can they ask you to shut it off, can they take the devise, is it legal? What about if a warden or sheriff comes to question you? What about taping them while they are doing say a warrant or an arrest down the street. I had one (no camera). Went to local store got a some lunch it was noon so I sat in my truck in the yard and had lunch. A dot officer pulled a log truck over and into the parking lot to weigh him. Right long side of me and I watched it all and chewed on my sandwich. The statie was kind of nervous and kept looking at me ( I was only feet away) he was very polite to the trucker and that was that. Truck was not over weight!!! But he sure didn't like being watched. Probably thought I had a cell cam??

Or maybe he was wondering if you were going to shoot him considering all the police assassination attempts lately.
 

I can't say I ever cared if I got taped doing my job back when I was a Trooper. I don't think the majority do. The problem is if someone alters the video to make it appear as if something wrong was done. That's happened in the past.

Personally, I wish I had had a dash and body cam to record the people I stopped or interacted with. Nothing like film of some knuckle head acting like a moron to ensure a conviction.
 
Unless the cop is planning something he shouldn't be I would think a camera would be welcome if he isn't wearing one. A lot of police forces are starting to wear them just to eliminate the bad guys from trying to say the "cop started it" or the "cop did that for no reason". If the cop is on the up and up why wouldn't he say "go ahead and record"?
 
There is a lot for a LEO to be nervous about. In 1967, we had a US Army instructor tell us that if you are lucky, when you realize that someone poses a lethal threat to you, you may have from .1 to .3 seconds to respond to that threat in time to survive the encounter. They said it takes most people .4 seconds to recognize and respond to a lethal threat, so they would be starting out .1 second behind. If these numbers are still accurate, I would be a little edgy too if I were a LEO.
Every time I see or hear comments debating how law enforcement should be done, I think about those numbers. Mel
 
You can find a "Pen" video recorder that fits in your pocket. Ebay. Now going to the dash cams and smart phones. There have been good and bad but so many pansies bend the laws around with the feel good garbage. There are idiots out there that could use a good crack acrose the head to straighten them out. There are also police that truly deserve the name pig. One of my neighbors friends was a city cop. Disgusting person. What is needed in the court of law is a TRUE lie detector. A truly unflappable and acurate device. It gets me so sick when you see people telling the reporter being told he was such a good boy. Sure...he was a gang leader, sold drugs, robbed mom and pop stores, and stole cars. Just like that street thug out there in Fergison. On his way to college my foot.
 
I would like for any interaction I have with today's law enforcement to be taped/recorded. I have very little respect for the majority of the "law enforcement" officers we have today. Maybe in larger towns/cities they are better but the smaller towns and such seem to attract the ones that just want to bully people with their own importance.

We have a local officer in Cascade that is a younger kid maybe 23-24 years old. He thinks he is GOD. Two weeks ago four fellow went to the local bar to watch football. They only lived maybe 5-6 blocks from the bar. They drove one car to the bar. They watched the game and drank some. They had planed all evening to leave the car and walk home after the game. They got followed two blocks from the bar by "Barney" and arrested for public intox. This is the type of thing that the local officers seem to like to do. NOT a darn thing with any "real" criminal but harass the heck out of everyone else that are basically honest everyday folks.

About four months ago same officer. Fellow had a bench warranty out for him. Paperwork screw-up. He had paid all his fines over a DUI but one did not get recorded with the state. HE was arrested which is fine. Officers 100% doing their job. He had parked his car on the public street in a parking spot when he was stopped. He told the officer he had called to have someone pick his car up. The car was entirely legal. In the town you can have a car parked for up to 48 hours legally. I was the one called to get his car. I got there 15 minutes after he was hauled off. The local cop had the car towed and impounded. Local towing service 2 blocks away. Cost my friend $450 to get his car back. I jumped the town police chief about it. He had no idea the car was towed nor could he give me a valid reason for the car to have been towed. I am willing to bet that the towing service is giving kick backs to the local cops for this type of stuff.

Both of our semis have cameras on them. They are hidden. 360 degree and all internal areas shown. The recorders are hidden too. I do not want anyone to be able to turn them off. If the driver screws up, an officer wants them to, or any other reason I do not want them to be turned off. Three years ago we beat a speeding ticket by being able to show that the truck was not going over the speed limit anytime in a half hour window the ticket was written in. Not the truck data recorder but a shot of the dash with a time stamp showing the date and time. Even had the officer on camera talking to the driver.

I do not trust the officers I have to deal with. Their jobs are tough but the laws have been stacked to where they are "GOD" in any type of involvement. You are in the wrong automatically with any dealing with them. It is tough to prove they did anything wrong. So the average "Joe" just has to take it and let it slide. Take the car towing example. You can not hire a lawyer for $450. This was almost a week's take home pay for the fellow. So what is to keep the next tow/impound form happening?????

I am not a "Black Lives matter" fan but if I was a person of color I sure would be afraid if stopped by the average officer. Many of the ones stopped are not choirboys but we are seeing totally innocent people shot and killed with little being done about it. What about the rancher shot last year while shooting that bull???? Any body hear anymore about that??? Are all those officers still working????

So while I am appalled at the lost of freedom recording everything causes I also am more afraid of quality of the law enforcement we deal with.
 
Well now days and all the cop shootings and all a nervous cop is common.
Now as for a cam running with all the corruption in the court houses and all a cam is something one almost needs to protect ones self form the court system that has gone over to the dark side of things
 
JD a lot of towns look to their PD's as a source of revenue. Sorry state of affairs, to be sure
 
In this day and age , I'm sure he wasn't worried about you having a cell cam. And he had every right to come over and question a lone male sitting in a parking lot if he so desired as they are a sitting duck wherever they go. As to legality of filming them while you are in your car..don't believe their is anything illegal about it as long as you can do it and comply with their requests at same time. Also be advised that if at any time he decides to have you step out and put your hands on the roof,it would be pretty hard to be filming at same time. They have every right to do just that. If you have a passenger then that would be the way to do it but if not, I'm sure he could legally make some commands that you must follow that would render you unable to be filming at same time. Kind of a double edged sword and a shame our country has come to this.
 
How many time has a cop said that his body cam or dash cam was "not working" or that he "forgot to turn it on" or that it was mistakenly erased ? LE cams are only as honest as the user.
The fact that we have so many bad LE officers is that so many of them are either on very high ego trips or else that they deal with so many really BAD guys, that the become unable to draw the line between bad guys and good guys. And that quandary extends to prosecutors and even judges. The only effective means of improving this situation is for them (LE officers, prosecutors and judges) is for them to clean up their own act, starting with firing the bad cops and that means totally excluding them from the profession rather than jus allowing them to apply to another jurisdiction and continue their overly aggressive behavior.
 
There are bad cops out there, but only about 2%. There are plenty of good ones out there too. When they went from to protect and serve to law enforcement, that is when the problems started. Used to be when you had a bad cop it was taken care of by his brothers. Now they are not doing anything and when they are treated like the bad ones have been giving they don't like it.
 
Pretty well said on that one. I questioned if you really could film say an interview with a warden if he is inquiring about deer poaching in the next field?
 
Here in NY it is perfectly legal to record an officer doing his duty as long as you don't interfere with the situation
 

From a Huffington Post article -


“There’s no law anywhere in the United States that prohibits people from recording the police on the street, in a park, or any other place where the public is generally allowed,” Osterreicher said.


A number of states do bar people from recording private conversations without consent. But as long as the recording is made “openly and not surreptitiously,” said Osterreicher, it’s fair game. According to Osterreicher, “assuming the position of holding up a camera or phone at arm’s length while looking at the viewing screen should be enough to put someone on notice that they are being photographed or recorded.”
 
(quoted from post at 08:45:43 11/24/16) I would like for any interaction I have with today's law enforcement to be taped/recorded. I have very little respect for the majority of the "law enforcement" officers we have today. Maybe in larger towns/cities they are better but the smaller towns and such seem to attract the ones that just want to bully people with their own importance.

We have a local officer in Cascade that is a younger kid maybe 23-24 years old. He thinks he is GOD. Two weeks ago four fellow went to the local bar to watch football. They only lived maybe 5-6 blocks from the bar. They drove one car to the bar. They watched the game and drank some. They had planed all evening to leave the car and walk home after the game. They got followed two blocks from the bar by "Barney" and arrested for public intox. This is the type of thing that the local officers seem to like to do. NOT a darn thing with any "real" criminal but harass the heck out of everyone else that are basically honest everyday folks.

About four months ago same officer. Fellow had a bench warranty out for him. Paperwork screw-up. He had paid all his fines over a DUI but one did not get recorded with the state. HE was arrested which is fine. Officers 100% doing their job. He had parked his car on the public street in a parking spot when he was stopped. He told the officer he had called to have someone pick his car up. The car was entirely legal. In the town you can have a car parked for up to 48 hours legally. I was the one called to get his car. I got there 15 minutes after he was hauled off. The local cop had the car towed and impounded. Local towing service 2 blocks away. Cost my friend $450 to get his car back. I jumped the town police chief about it. He had no idea the car was towed nor could he give me a valid reason for the car to have been towed. I am willing to bet that the towing service is giving kick backs to the local cops for this type of stuff.

Both of our semis have cameras on them. They are hidden. 360 degree and all internal areas shown. The recorders are hidden too. I do not want anyone to be able to turn them off. If the driver screws up, an officer wants them to, or any other reason I do not want them to be turned off. Three years ago we beat a speeding ticket by being able to show that the truck was not going over the speed limit anytime in a half hour window the ticket was written in. Not the truck data recorder but a shot of the dash with a time stamp showing the date and time. Even had the officer on camera talking to the driver.

I do not trust the officers I have to deal with. Their jobs are tough but the laws have been stacked to where they are "GOD" in any type of involvement. You are in the wrong automatically with any dealing with them. It is tough to prove they did anything wrong. So the average "Joe" just has to take it and let it slide. Take the car towing example. You can not hire a lawyer for $450. This was almost a week's take home pay for the fellow. So what is to keep the next tow/impound form happening?????

I am not a "Black Lives matter" fan but if I was a person of color I sure would be afraid if stopped by the average officer. Many of the ones stopped are not choirboys but we are seeing totally innocent people shot and killed with little being done about it. What about the rancher shot last year while shooting that bull???? Any body hear anymore about that??? Are all those officers still working????

So while I am appalled at the lost of freedom recording everything causes I also am more afraid of quality of the law enforcement we deal with.

JD, I want to point out a couple of things. In reference to your first instance, whether you realize it or not if you drink to the point of impairment then are on public property that is ILLEGAL, PLAIN AND SIMPLE. Its called public intoxication, and the statute in Texas is written not to arrest people on a whim or just because, but to protect the lives of the public and/or the intoxicated person.

Many years ago we did a bar check and a local girl was drowning her sorrows and badly intoxicated. Her friends said they'd take her home and put her to bed, and begged us not to take her in. As she was in safe hands we didn't, and her friends took her keys.

About 4 hours later I found her, face down in the floor of her truck, not breathing. Her friends had took her home, put her in bed, then left. She got up, found a spare key and a bottle of Wild Turkey, and went drinking and driving. She run off the road, hit the floor, and while facedown vomited, aspirating on it, killing her. I'll never forget how she was still WARM as we pulled her from the truck. Forever 23 years old.
If I had taken her in for public intoxication I'd probably been labeled "Barney" but she'd still be alive. THATS WHY WE TAKE PEOPLE TO JAIL FOR PUBLIC INTOXICATION, THEIR OWN SAFETY!

Most towns and jurisdictions get tired of people that are arrested coming back and saying the car they left on the side of the road is missing gas, batteries, tires, the Rolex watch from the dash, or anything else you can imagine. And I've seen cars left on the road get vandalized, stolen, wrecked, etc. and cities don't want to be responsible for it. The way to prevent this is to have the vehicle impounded, so the name of the wrecker driver, the company he works for, the secure location of the car is known and recorded. Its much easier to just arrest a person and go, not waiting on the impound, but most departments insist.

I've always said the camera has gotten me out of lots more trouble than its ever gotten me into, but one must be careful to see all of the recording, not just a snippet.

I'm sorry someone has treated you so badly you have a poor opinion of LEO's. In the immortal words of Colonel Jessup from "A FEW GOOD MEN":

We use words like honor, code, loyalty. We use these words as the backbone of a life spent defending something. You use them as a punchline. I have neither the time nor the inclination to explain myself to a man who rises and sleeps under the blanket of the very freedom that I provide, and then questions the manner in which I provide it. I would rather you just said thank you, and went on your way, Otherwise, I suggest you pick up a weapon, and stand a post.
 
You're not kidding Jack. In one of the
mainly government supported villages I have
to work in, there is one fellow in a
trailer, that no matter what time of day, is
filming me out the door when I am scraping
or plowing the street he lives on. Nothing
better to do I guess
 
I think for the most part the guys around here aren't too bad. There are a couple that are just plain jerks on the job and off. I'm pretty sure one of them told me their dash cam comes on when the lights or siren is turned on. When they go to pull someone over, they have to radio in, and describe what they are dealing with. Then, they are required to turn on their body cams before they get out of their car, and film the entire engagement with whoever and whatever situation they are dealing with, until they get back in their car. I had ripped the wires out of the license plate lights on my pickup driving it across a field last summer. I didn't know it until I was pulled over to be made aware of it. He just asked me where I was going to and where I was coming from. When I told him I was just leaving work, he asked where I worked. It was 10:30 at night. He just told me to try to get them fixed when I had a chance and that he was sorry for bothering me. I was working 16-18 days, and then when I tried to play catch up on the weekends, it just slipped my mind to fix those license plate lights. He pulled me over again about 3 weeks later, 11:00 this time. Just about sled me if I was leaving work again, I said yes, and he just said he wanted to remind me to fix my license plate lights, but understood that since I was working that late (we start at 6 AM in the summer) that he knows it's hard to get anything done, but if I would just try to get it fixed in a reasonable time frame or someone else would probably pull me over just to let me know to fix it as well.
 
It is now legal to record the video and the sound of law enforcement. The courts ruled this legal a couple of years ago.
However, if a LEO tell you to shut it off and you don't, they can write you up for any other kind of legal excuse they want to.
I'd say it's best to keep it hidden, keep your mouth shut about it and don't mention it to them that they are being recorded until the evidence is needed.
 
Steven: Thank you for the link. It would appear that the one deputy has had problems while at other departments (5) and the other one was not very experienced, four months full time.

This story goes back to me wanting everything with law enforcement recorded. It is amazing that these officers had recording devices on them and in their cars but NOT one single one of them recorded the incident that happened. The ones in the cars were turned off. The one deputy had his turned off and the other's memory was full. Shooting a man 12 times seems like over kill to me. Seems like the one deputy got "BUCK" fever and just kept shooting.

It does not surprise me that there where no charges against the officers. Their story is gold(both matched too) and any one else's is suspect. The sheriff even won re-election. So all is well in that country, just business as usually.

I really liked how they hand cuffed the widow and she then had a heart attack. Fine up standing police work!!!!
 
Old Farmall45: Police officers DO NOT preserve freedom in this country!!!! They are more apt to restrict freedom. I see more and more excessive force complaints than I ever heard of in the past. We have too many Rambo type of officers that lack the common sense to deescalate situations over just brute forcing THEIR will and personal view of the LAW on whom ever they are dealing with.

The terms used in "Few good men"(Honor, Code) Sure as hell does not describe a lot of the law enforcement in today's USA!!!!! That term is reserved for those that have served in BATTLE. It sure as heck does not apply to large segments of the civilian police force in my opinion. I left out loyalty deliberately, they are loyal to covering each other's butt.

Think about this!!!! You are more likely to be shoot by a police officer than a total stranger in much of the USA right now. Giving control of a person's freedom and life to some poorly paid and low trained officer is just plain dangerous to too many people.

As for the public intox case. The four men did not have over a 1.1 on the Breathalyzer test. They demanded a blood test and did beat the charges in court. Cost them about $5K to do it. Many could not have afforded to fight it.

As for the car deal. This was not in the middle of the country. It was on main street, directly across form the TOWN HALL that houses the Police station. Not fifty feet from where the TOWN police Chief parks his car every single day!!!! Also I talked to the police Chief the very next morning and he had ZERO idea the car had been towed and could not give me a good reason why it had been done. So they do not have a policy of towing all and having them impounded.

I will agree than many of the published police shootings are making the person shot sound like a choirboy when in reality they are hoods. Then read up on cases like the Yantis case in Idaho or watch the video of the cop shooting a fat man running away from him. The cop that shot the fat guy got charged but without the video the odds of it happening would have been slim.
 

What we are dealing with is a Para-Military Force that thinks it is "Elite", above any Civil Laws and that will
Fight Tooth and Nail to avoid Drug Testing...in particular for Steroids which amplifies aggressiveness and loss of control in a stressful situation...

Sound like something that is becoming more and more apparent..??
 

Yes, that was my 1st thought: you would be putting yourself in an unsafe position and possibly ( Arguably) placing the officer in a position that would let him get away with firing on you ( perhaps with the puny excuse that he "Was AFRAID")...

I could not believe, when ALL of the cops turned their Backs on their Governor, that NOT ONE answered for it and it should have been their Commanding Officer ...

Para-Military actions are Very Troubling and any "Officer" claiming to be "Afraid", should be released as un-desirable..

But, I suppose we maybe should not really expect too much from them..they may have been raised in a Sterile Environment and not able to cop with the realities of common ordinary life outside the force..
 
(quoted from post at 00:38:22 11/25/16)
What we are dealing with is a Para-Military Force that thinks it is "Elite", above any Civil Laws and that will
Fight Tooth and Nail to avoid Drug Testing...in particular for Steroids which amplifies aggressiveness and loss of control in a stressful situation...

Sound like something that is becoming more and more apparent..??

We took drug tests on a regular basis, at least a couple times a year, sometimes a couple times a month.
 

JD Seller, part of the reason you see more and more excessive force complaints is because more and more people are fighting back, sometimes hoping to be able to initiate a law suit and win a lifetime of easy living. You're also seeing it because the anti-law and order media has made tearing down law enforcement part of their agenda. That's why they call riots "protests" and why they play the film of the grieving mother of the kid that was shot while holding up a store telling us what a good boy he was. That's why they show the old smiling pictures of the kid from 4th grade instead of the ones where he's holding a gun and giving the gang signs.

I hate dirty cops, I hate poor training that results in cops doing the wrong thing. But you have to remember there's a whole industry out there that makes their living off the agenda of "us vs them", be it cop vs citizen, black vs white, rich vs poor, rural vs urban, libe ral vs con servative. You have to keep that in mind.
 

BTW JD, a 1.1% BAC would mean the people were in a coma. I imagine you meant .10 which is pretty drunk, or .01 which is about half a glass of beer for most people. The highest BAC % I ever saw personally was a .44 but I heard of a .6% where the person was not only conscious but walking. Obviously a hard core alcoholic.
 
JDSELLER, you sound like our Governor, here in Iowa. Anything he or his Family is involved in is labeled an 'incident'. Even when his Son, Eric, killed those two older Iowans while driving impaired in a stolen van. He did get a ticket for passing unsafely. Daddy got his son a 'position' on his political party's choice for President. His Dad, Terry, said that the elderly needed to make room for the 'younger' Generation. Our Governor is a real impediment to our honest Law Enforcement. "Boss Hogg" Terry ain't.
 
For over twenty years, most large workplaces have required their employees to sign a form acknowledging that that you can be on camera at any time, your work computer can be monitored at any time, your emails and phone conversations can be monitored at any time, your company vehicle may be tracked by satellite, if there is an accident or an injury you will be required to take a drug test, and you may be selected to take a random a drug test at anytime. That does not bother most honest people.
 
Well over 30 yrs ago, I owned a software company and did some programming for a customer who made VCR systems for cop cars. VCR was in a box in the trunk. Camera on the windshield. It was pretty new technology and assuredly crude compared to today's stuff. Anyway, there was a guy who claimed he was beat up during a traffic stop. His attorney was full of bluster about suing the city until they showed him the video of the guy banging his head on the cop car hood. Attorney just shut up and walked out the door. :lol:

In general, I don't think a cop would care if you're polite and not aggressive. Recording during a stop protects both parties, IMO.
 

Don't forget about those "No Knock" warrants where the black ops police squad have killed numerous innocent citizens, where they "No Knocked" their way into a home with sleeping people. An elderly man grabbed his pistol to defend his and his spouses lives against something he did not even have time to process. Of course he was killed in the process. Cops just say, "Oops"...wrong house, sorry. Nothing happens and no one on the squad gets fired/jail for this stupendous act against the freedom of people in this nation. That kind of stuff bespeaks of "Nazi Germany" and Hitler type enforcement. I'm not against policemen/policewomen doing their job on the streets. But, I am against this black ops type of operations because they are so pumped up and ready to kill. I think everyone involved that kills an innocent person should much jail time, including the commanders and up to the chief. They are, after-all working on their orders. That is why people are getting more afraid of police, their actions belie their profession. Those type should join the real fighting forces in the middle east. Then they can bang away.
 

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