more hope for hope for the republic

[twoeleven]

i'm very pleased by justice sotomayor's comments at a recent speech where she was down on surveillance. given the number of such cases which will reach her desk soon, i wonder if the obaminator is regretting appointing a liberal judge to the bench.


meanwhile, in chicago, the police are starting an experiment in watching the watchmen watch men:

The Chicago Police Department is preparing to try out body cameras on some of its officers, joining a growing national trend that is raising hopes of increased police professionalism but also a raft of difficult questions about how the cameras should be used properly.

...

Proponents hope the cameras will reduce the number of citizen complaints and costly lawsuits about police misconduct while at the same time discouraging citizens from making baseless accusations against officers. The U.S. Justice Department has warned of the scarcity of research on the cameras' effectiveness, but a widely cited study of body cameras in 2012 by police in Rialto, Calif., a small town about 55 miles east of Los Angeles, found that complaints against its officers plummeted by 88 percent that year while officers' use of force dropped by 60 percent.

...

Potentially thorny details must still be worked out on how and when officers can use the cameras. Among the likely issues to be hashed out will be if officers must tell citizens that they're being recorded, how long the video evidence ordinarily would be kept and what, if any, footage would be made public and under what circumstances, experts say.

...

while it's certainly possible this will provide a new avenue for abuse, i think the details are easy to hammer out (there are working examples to copy, for instance) and potential benefits are huge. one of the benefits i hope for -- but don't necessarily expect -- is that having to wear cameras will make the beat cops and their bosses more aware of how spying can be abused, and maybe, just maybe, cause them to back off.

i'd like my flying pony in green with gold racing stripes, thanks.