UK - police helmet-mounted cameras

[buckthesystem]

This is like something out of a bad science-fiction movie, or a horror movie perhaps:

http://cms.met.police.uk/news/policy_organ...ocial_behaviour

Camera technology to combat anti-social behaviour

From today, Haringey officers will be using the latest high-tech camera technology in an effort to tackle anti-social behaviour.

Operation Aventail will target a number of offences over a five-day period and Safer Neighbourhood (SN) officers will set off on patrol using unique head-mounted cameras.

Being used for the first time the cameras, which are the size of an AA battery, are mounted on to police headgear. Officers can then patrol as usual with the cameras recording digital images to a special utility belt.

The equipment, which costs around

[Guest shiloh357]

This is like something out of a bad science-fiction movie, or a horror movie perhaps:

Yeah, those horror movies where the police are actually given the equipment they need, so they can better stop crimes at airports by catching people with weapons before they can get on planes, or stop people using their improperly licensed cars to commt crimes, or stopping robberies or potential home-breakins. Yeah, who would want to live in a world where those crimes were actually thwarted and people could live in safety?

I guess you wouldn't.

[buckthesystem]

This is like something out of a bad science-fiction movie, or a horror movie perhaps:

Yeah, those horror movies where the police are actually given the equipment they need, so they can better stop crimes at airports by catching people with weapons before they can get on planes, or stop people using their improperly licensed cars to commt crimes, or stopping robberies or potential home-breakins. Yeah, who would want to live in a world where those crimes were actually thwarted and people could live in safety?

I guess you wouldn't.

Shilo, I guess you would be an obsequious little citizen of Stallinist Russia or West Germany under the Stasi secret police, or you'd really be happy living in Aldous Huxley's "Brave new world". Or perhaps you would have had a wonderful life as a citizen in Germany during the 1930s.

What are you doing living in America? When are you going to go and live in a police state?

[AMK]

I am from Scotland, But live in Norway and do you know that people get away with just about anything they want in Norway when it concerns crime and traffic in particular. But in Scotland its much tougher because they have camera,s everywhere. Even on top of traffic lights and in all the major cities and some of the towns too. Its a great Idea because it stops people from tailgating and running red lights ect. If you don,t have a camera nearby and you report a traffic violation or a break in, what do you think the chances are of someone actualy being charged are? Add a few camera,s here and there and that problem gets solved fast As for policemen with camera,s on there helmets. Sure why not. I want one in my car too

[Marnie]

I am with buck on this one. Cameras?? I see them everywhere too and frankly it disgusts me. I mean, hire enough police to do the jojb! Cameras are not people; they can't make judgment calls. If the police stopped hanging out at Dunkin' Donuts and Tim Hortons, we wouldn't need the cameras. But, it makes some of the public feel safe, so... It's a sore spot with me.

[AMK]

I am with buck on this one. Cameras?? I see them everywhere too and frankly it disgusts me. I mean, hire enough police to do the jojb! Cameras are not people; they can't make judgment calls. If the police stopped hanging out at Dunkin' Donuts and Tim Hortons, we wouldn't need the cameras. But, it makes some of the public feel safe, so... It's a sore spot with me.

There are never enough police to do the job

Policemen cannot be everywhere

Camera,s show you what happens as apposed to what a policeman tells you he saw

Camera,s are not supposed to make judgement calls?

Maybe this discusion should be based on where camera,s should be placed and where not to place them

[Arthur Durnan]

Cameras, as many as possible, to photograph & identify lawbreakers - and Muslim terrorists too. It should win the Nobel Peace Prize for 2006! Blackberrys for everybody!

http://arthurdurnan.freeyellow.com

[Marnie]

There are never enough police to do the job

Policemen cannot be everywhere

Camera,s show you what happens as apposed to what a policeman tells you he saw

Camera,s are not supposed to make judgement calls?

Maybe this discusion should be based on where camera,s should be placed and where not to place them

The problem is with "zero tolerance." For example, I drive through a red light and the camera takes my picture. It doesn't know I am rushing my friend who just had a heart attack to the hospital. A few days later I get a ticket in the mail and have to take a day off work to go for my day in court. The judge lets me off, of coirse, but meanwhile I missed work and had to be inconvenienced all because a camera was doing a job a cop should have been doing. That's what I mean by judgment call. A cop could have pulled me over, seen what was happening and given me an escort to the hospital. Folks, we are are way too reliant on technology; nothing can replace human beings.

Cameras also do not always show everything and images on a screen can be misinterpreted.

I agree about placement. Cameras caught my assault and contributed to the eventual capture of the thugs. But, they were in a very large parkinglot and it was very late at night. In that kind of situation I think they are a useful aid. I think they are useful on private property or in buildings where sensitive work is being done. But they should never be used to enforce laws, only to aid human beings who should be enforcing laws. As a taxpayer, I want to see a uniformed police presense, not some camera that may or may not be working.

[eric]

Hey Bucko, when are you going to post something that is not anti police, anti state anti govt, anti american or anti bush. Someone has to be in control.

[buckthesystem]

Hey Bucko, when are you going to post something that is not anti police, anti state anti govt, anti american or anti bush. Someone has to be in control.

Hey eric you know better than anyone. God is in control. We don't have to, and we shouldn't, suffer incompetents in government. I am not "anti-American" or "anti-Bush", that is a way too broader term and pretty meaningless. It is a sign of political correctness to be automatically labelled as "anti-(something)" if you raise any questions about it - and that trick usually works. It has the effect of gagging any dissent because people are so afraid of being labelled "anti-American" that they just shut up.

Why is it that if anyone makes it clear that they are "anti-torture" or intimates that they are sick of "measures" being erroneously blamed on the (equally phony) "war on terror", or criticise anything about "rendition flights", "detainees" in Guantanamo Bay, or mentions that the Western world seems to be turning into a police state, it is not long before somebody comes out with "anti-American" and "anti-Bush"?

I am definitely anti-state control and very much anti-big government! Not "anti-government". I acknowledge that people need some form of government, I just believe that if we are forced to pay for these people to be there, we should get some say in policy and not have things forced on us. I am anti-the state forcing its agenda on the people. This is happening in every country - it is certainly happening in NZ, right?

Also I believe very strongly that all Christians have an obligation to expose evil wherever we find it, and to fight it with "every fibre of our being". To me, being Christian is not just being passive, sitting back and saying "I'm all right Jack, God is going to take care of me" - I see that as kind of selfish. If we do that we are ignoring our responsibility to expose evil, and making it all the harder for non-Christians who will suffer by the fact that we are being seen to support their freedoms being lost. I was reading a news item, some time ago, on a plan to fingerprint all school kids in the UK and when I came to the comments section. Somebody had written: "There are (x number) of evangalical Christians in UK, we should get them on our side", then somebody else had commented: "Not much chance of that, they all seem to have the attitude that these things are 'God's will' and it is all inevitable".

Don't joint in with the criticism eric, there is far more to it. Surely you really don't support the idea of a police force having "helmet-mounted cameras", do you? And I'm MOST DEFINITELY NOT "anti-American" or "anti-Bush".