Smile! You're On Cop Camera!

Smile! You're On Cop Camera!

The next time you talk to a police officer, you might find yourself staring into a lens. Companies such as Taser and Vievu are making small, durable cameras designed to be worn on police officer's uniforms. The idea is to capture video from the officer's point of view, for use as evidence against suspects, as well as to help monitor officers' behavior toward the public.The concept is catching on. The cameras have been adopted by big city police departments, such as Cincinnati and Oakland, Calif., as well as dozens of smaller cities, such as Bainbridge Island, Wash., where the Vievu camera was initially tested by Officer Ben Sias.

"The only thing that really was different about doing business is that I'd tell the person that we're being recorded," Sias says. Baca urged to place more cameras in jail.He sees the camera as a kind of insurance policy."In this job we're frequently accused of things we haven't done, or things were kind of embellished, as far as contact," he says. "And the cameras show a pretty unbiased opinion of what actually did happen."That makes the cameras particularly appealing in cities where the police have been accused of misconduct.

In Seattle, for example, the police department is being investigated by the Justice Department after a series of amateur videos showed police officers punching or kicking suspects. The problem with some of those videos, says Seattle City Council member Bruce Harrell, is that they often capture only part of an incident."What we have now are videos after the fact — the 'second punch' kind of situation," Harrell says.That's why Harrell wants Seattle police to start wearing cameras, too. He's asked the mayor to include money in next year's budget for a pilot project, equipping a handful of Seattle police with the cameras.