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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsChicago Police Have Been Sabotaging Their Own Dashboard Cameras on Purpose
Just when you thought the scandal-ridden Chicago Police Department was ready to collapse under the weight of its own idiocy, it goes and does something like this. According to DNA Info, 80% of dashboard cameras in CPD patrol vehicles don't record audio either because officers are activating them incorrectly, or because they're intentionally damaging or concealing them.
This troubling revelation sheds light on what happened the night of Oct. 20, 2014, when Officer Jason Van Dyke who was recently released on bond after being charged with first-degree murder shot and killed a 17-year-old, unarmed black boy named Laquan McDonald. The incident was recorded by multiple police dash cameras, but many of them did not record audio, including Van Dyke's.
In Van Dyke's case, the reason for this is now clear: He'd intentionally made his camera not work. The 15-year veteran took the camera from his patrol car to the department's maintenance team in June 2014, three months after reporting it broken, and repairs were completed June 17. The next day, the camera was suddenly broken again. Then, on Oct. 8 12 days before Van Dyke killed McDonald the maintenance team fixed it for a second time, citing "intentional damage" as the reason for its malfunction.
The night of Oct. 20, the same camera wasn't recording any audio. Investigators concluded this was because the microphone had not been synced.
The camera's repeated breakdowns and mysterious failure to record sound appear to be part of a larger pattern in Chicago. Technicians have identified 90 cases between September 2014 and July 2015 where CPD officers had actually hidden their dashcam mics in the glove compartment of their cars, while in 30 other instances, there was evidence that recording devices were "intentionally defeated" or not activated by police personnel, DNA Info reported.
https://www.yahoo.com/news/chicago-police-sabotaging-own-dashboard-163400926.html
tblue37
(65,340 posts)and left them on the roof of the PD. I will see if I can find a link.
ON EDIT: Surprise, surprise--it was Chicago where cops did that. Here is a link:
http://chicago.suntimes.com/news/7/71/1190969/22-police-shootings-audio
A month and a half ago before the release of the dashcam video showing an officer firing 16 shots and killing 17-year-old Laquan McDonald on the Southwest Side a sergeant saw the discarded microphones through a window at the Jefferson Park station and reported the incident to the Independent Police Review Authority.
(SNIP)
dixiegrrrrl
(60,010 posts)...."the now-infamous Ferguson effect, claiming that all the attention on police misconduct has discouraged officers from doing their jobs.
Yep, that's right.....police who make the news for killing unarmed (mostly black) citizens are SUFFERING because there is scrutiny of them,
for killing unarmed citizens!
AND....
Other sources told DNAinfo that officers were doing the bare minimum because they were so demoralized by the public outrage.
Theyve got nobody watching out for them. Theyve got nobody supporting them vocally Downtown, Angelo said. Weve got a spike in crime and murders and shooting right now that we have not seen in decades and we are restricting proactive policing.