IFWT_Police Body Camera
Police Officer Fired For Failing To Turn On Body Camera, this might give us some light as to what could happen with cops using these body cameras. This year it a report(from the department of justice) stated that the Albuquerque police department was the worst in the country when it came to civil rights & excessive force, and forced that PD to wear body cameras. Back in April, while wearing a body camera, looks like police officer Jeremy Dear failed to turn on his body camera.



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Police Officer Fired For Failing To Turn On Body Camera:

Here’s what happened, a little over a week after the body camera program began, officer Dear and other officers confronted an Auto theft suspect, 19 year old Mary Hawkes, and they allege Hawkes pointed a gun at the cops(a Davis Industries .32 caliber semi-automatic pistol was recovered near the body), and she was shot and killed. Dear was the cop that killed her. The incident was investigated and video could not be recovered from Dear’s camera(apparently video from the other officers proved useless since they weren’t close enough).

Albuquerque Police chief Eden ‘explained that the technology can sometimes fails’, at the time the chief wasn’t sure if the camera failed, or wasn’t turned on. Dear insisted the camera was on at the time, and Eden had sent the camera to the manufacturer to try and recover the video, but the manufacturer said there was no video, and couldn’t be for sure that Dear was telling the truth.

Well after an internal probe, Dear has now been fired for “insubordination and untruthfulness”, Chief Eden said in a statement;

“Insubordination tears at the fabric of public safety especially when the officer makes a choice not to follow a lawful order,”

“In imposing the discipline of termination, I considered the seriousness of the acts and omissions, aggravating circumstances and Officer Dear’s disciplinary record,”

Some int he are have said the shooting it’s self seems justified, and Dear as of now has not been charged with any type of criminal charges, although Dear has been fired, it seems unlikely he’ll be charged. Dear’s attorney is saying he was fired just to set an example, “If they fire every officer who doesn’t turn on his uniform camera, they won’t have anyone left on the department.”

Here’s the thing, yes his ass should be fired, yes an example should be made, especially with everything going on in the country(Mike Brown, Eric Garner), and PD’s like th NYPD saying how body cameras will change how the police and community deal with each other, if officers fail to turn on the body cameras when an incident happens, they should be fired at the very least! I mean Eric Garner’s death WAS CAUGHT on camera, and that officer still didn’t get indicted, so people are already questioning if body cameras will make difference, IF they refuse to turn them on, it’s like WTF!! And that whole ‘sometimes technology fails’ excuse is BS, yes sometimes tech does fail, but come on, no one will be wiling to hear that when the next citizen is killed by the cops, so a Police Officer Fired For Failing To Turn On Body Camera is the VERY LEAST that should happen!!!

By the way, today the NYPD body camera program started today in limited precints, including the 102, where Eric Garner was killed…Hmmmm, too fu**ing little, too late!!!

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