Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2017/02/28/multiple-angles.html
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That is a great idea. I assume that “archive mode” means that the recordings cannot be easily erased.
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I predict his product will die on the vine. The survey asking law enforcement why they didn’t purchase will show that the most common reason was “Insufficient legal funding. For fuck’s sake! It’s not like we’d use our civil forfeiture profits for this crap!”
Serious question: Any reason the sensor couldn’t be fitted on a normal gun holster?
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I’m wondering whether we will eventually see a device that can trigger this record-and-archive mode outside of official accessories. Having the ability to force the cameras into this mode for, say, protests and the like could be very powerful. (Not that I would expect any such device to be functional for long, I do enjoy the thought.)
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Police tech at computer monitor: “Ma’am, I’m not sure this new feature is working. I seem to be stuck in an Imagur feed of donut photos.”
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Po Po no likey.
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Hey, gotta prioritize. Those slushie machines are expensive.
The attachment point appears to be for a Lok style belt clip and I’d guess the holster itself is made of Kydex or something similar. Once you have the mold, Kydex is relatively cheap to manufacture and it’s a reasonably flexible but resilient and durable plastic that lends itself well to holsters. My guess is that the sensor mechanism needs that somewhat rigid support against the gun inside the holster to work reliably. A leather or nylon holster would likely be too soft or become too soft over time. Also, a lot of people prefer Kydex because it can be quicker to draw from but still holds weapon quite securely. The downside is that it doesn’t conceal well, but that’s not really a problem for uniformed law enforcement.
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I guess all you’d have to do is buy one of the holsters and take the transmitter out of it. But yeah, maybe a bit difficult to get
While you’re at it, see about making a receiver so you either know when a gun is drawn. Or someone is trying to spoof a drawn gun.
I’m not sure how they’d address preventing the cameras from going off all the time in the normal course of removing the gun from the holster such as at the station house or firing range. Just don’t wear a body cam then?
How likely will departments not have the funds to get this, but have enough to cover lawsuits?
And this is why I don’t trust the police anymore. I have had good experiences with them, but I know that if my skin color was different, I would be viewed with suspicion.
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Analysts predict weak sales.
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Now if they can only find some way to keep the recordings from going “missing” or the cameras from "malfunctioning"
I still think the badge should be the camera. No camera = no badge = no authority to police.
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Interesting idea.
Taking it further imagine if the gun itself had some ‘black box’ functionality. It could record when it was pulled from a holster, its orientation at time intervals, when shots were fired. Stick a narrower fov phone camera on there and take a picture whenever a shot is fired.
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This, one hundred times over. For any firearm in use by Johnny Law, a time-stamped feed of all the things mentioned above, including GPS location and audio clips. It’s uncommon to find an officer who has actually fired their weapon in the line of duty, so why would it be a problem?*
*That’s a rhetorical question because I have every expectation of LEO types becoming apoplectic with fury over even a suggestion that any such policy/practice being implemented.
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I’m sure some cop-centric hate site will provide the hack to get around this.
I’m not even a cop-centric hate-site, but if I were looking to attack this, I’d try flooding the camera with innocuous content.
I don’t know what the storage limits are on a body camera, but my (naive?) assumption is that the reason why it doesn’t just record and keep footage 24/7 is because it would run into storage limitations. If I’ve got two hours of must-not-erase storage capability, all I have to do is make sure that gets filled before I do anything objectionable.
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I see your point. Exactly what the storage space is (for body and car cams) and protocol for recording (automatic or otherwise) is completely unknown to me and is likely to differ from city to city. Maybe someone out there could enlighten us.
The reason it doesn’t record 24/7 is because during the course of the day there are things cops do that don’t need to be recorded. Things like going to the bathroom, eating lunch, talking to their spouse, talking to members of the public that don’t want to be recorded. There are plenty of good reasons to not life blog a cop’s entire shift.
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hey that is a nice trigger. Let’s IFTT this.
If trigger, all the copcars start blaring ride of the valkyres.
go for it I say
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