Former NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly changes tune on use of police body cameras

[Renew Deal]

Former NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly, previously an avowed skeptic of police body cameras, said Sunday that he now supports use of the devices and believes police departments around the country will begin utilizing them in wake of Walter Scott's death at the hands of a South Carolina police officer earlier this month.

"It has changed my mind," Kelly said on ABC's "This Week." "Because we have to assume that this officer would not act the way he did if, in fact, he had a body camera that was recording."

Kelly's comments come days after Mayor Bill de Blasio endorsed the use of police body cameras to increase transparency and accountability.

"We've seen these painful moments captured on individual citizens' cellphone cameras," de Blasio said Wednesday. "We are going to move more and more to a society where the cameras are on police officers -- for the good of all, so the truth comes out."
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http://www.silive.com/news/index.ssf/2015/04/former_nypd_commissioner_ray_k.html

[Hoyt]

1. Glad to see this. Hope cameras are eventually required of anyone carrying a gun.

[DefenseLawyer]

2. I'd certainly rather have them than not.

But there also needs to be some penalty, perhaps application of the exclusionary rule, when there is no recording. I deal with a lot of police agencies that use cameras now, but wouldn't you know that they seem to often be "broken" when there is a questionable action by the cop.

[ladjf]

3. If I were a policeman, I wouldn't want to clock in without

having my body camera on. A good policeman should have nothing to hide.