LAPD Cops are Disabling Their Own Recorders. Not Just a Few Cops Either, Half of Them!

By Matt Agorist / http://thefreethoughtproject.com

What good are lapel cams and microphones if the cops are disabling them? Why aren’t they being fired for this?

“No one likes to be monitored,” says Sid Heal, recently retired commander who evaluated technology during his decades-long tenure at the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department. And? If you do not want to be filmed and recorded don’t be a cop.

According to the arstechnica.com, The Los Angeles Police Commission is investigating how half of the recording antennas in the Southeast Division went missing, seemingly as a way to evade new self-monitoring procedures that the Los Angeles Police Department imposed last year.

The antennas, which are mounted onto individual patrol cars, receive recorded audio captured from an officer’s belt-worn transmitter. The transmitter is designed to capture an officer’s voice and transmit the recording to the car itself for storage. The voice recorders are part of a video camera system that is mounted in a front-facing camera on the patrol car. Both elements are activated any time the car’s emergency lights and sirens are turned on, but they can also be activated manually.

According to the Los Angeles Times, an LAPD investigation determined that around half of the 80 patrol cars in one South LA division were missing antennas as of last summer, and an additional 10 antennas were unaccounted for. Citing a police source, the newspaper said that removing the antennas can reduce the range of the voice transmitters by as much as a third of the normal operating distance.

The Police Commission, an independent body that oversees LAPD policy, was only notified of the situation two months ago. Neither the commission nor the LAPD immediately responded for comment.

Dear LAPD, we do not care if you do not want to be monitored. If you would stop harassing, beating, kidnapping, and killing people for no reason, then, maybe, we will reconsider it. Until then, pipe down and deal with being held accountable.
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