• grrgyle@slrpnk.net
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    6 days ago

    I’m so disenchanted with policing that I’m not sure it can be rehabilitated without heavy heavy changes, but you remind me of how I felt signing up for police college as a young guy. I was pretty religious too at the time, and going into policing felt like the ultimate service to the community.

    Anyway, a few ride-alongs cured me of that notion.

    • A Phlaming Phoenix@lemm.ee
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      6 days ago

      I told my father, a Nazi and former cop (but I repeat myself), that body cams should be turned on from the moment a cop is on duty to the moment they are not, that this data should be live-streamed to servers where the footage can be reviewed by the public and become subject to feedback. He RAILED against this, crying about how cops would never have any privacy, etc. (completely missing the point and the detail of what I said because he’s completely reactionary, like cops tend to be).

      I’m an open source code developer. My code, including the often dumb and embarrassing errors I make from time to time, are available to the world for immediate scrutiny the instant I push a commit or open a pull request. My code isn’t really the kind of thing involved in life or death situations. So why should I be subject to more direct scrutiny than cops? Why should we allow cops this whiney attitude toward job evaluation?

      • grrgyle@slrpnk.net
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        6 days ago

        Agreed re body cams, except maybe how “public” the footage is. Thinking here about the privacy of the subjects being recorded.

        Maybe sent to a watchdog org which can accept requests if people don’t want details of themselves or their lives freely available.

        Opens up the avenue for intimidation ofc, so kid gloves

        • A Phlaming Phoenix@lemm.ee
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          5 days ago

          Sure, I’ll take a citizen-led board of reviewers, as long as they have legal teeth and aren’t under the purview of those being evaluated.