Fergie's Tech Blog

Los Angeles: Video Cameras Urged to Monitor the Police

Patrick McGreevy and Richard Winton write in The Los Angeles Times:

Alarmed by a number of incidents involving police abuse allegations, civil rights groups called Friday for the Los Angeles Police Department to install surveillance cameras in all police stations and to expedite putting the devices in all patrol cars.

LAPD officials said they were taking steps to carry out that task.

It was a video surveillance camera installed in the Central Division station that captured images of an officer allegedly assaulting a 16-year-old detainee while the youth was handcuffed this week, leading Police Chief William J. Bratton on Thursday to announce the officer's arrest.

However, LAPD officials acknowledged Friday that video surveillance systems have not been installed in several police stations and that the city is just beginning to test putting cameras in patrol cars. The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department does not have video cameras in its patrol cars either, a representative said.

posted by Fergie @ 12/09/2006 12:44:00 AM