Leaked Documents Reveal Police Department Planted Drugs for Years, DA Complicit

Re:Leaked Documents Reveal Police Department Planted Drugs f... by taurath on Tuesday December 01, 2015 @08:45PM (#10660328)

Any policy changes will be opposed by an army of well-paid lobbyists and advocacy groups that are incredibly good at spreading fear uncertainty and doubt, and in the end justice will not likely come for those already effected or in jail, unless there is hard smoking gun evidence. Its not in any cops's interest to have all their actions even in the heat of the moment put under a microscope. The good is that this could precipitate more body-cams and have it eventually have it put reasonable doubt back in the hands of the defendant rather than the officer - if you have a body-cam, why was it off during this altercation where questionable things occurred?

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Re:Leaked Documents Reveal Police Department Planted Drugs f... by hackuser on Tuesday December 01, 2015 @08:54PM (#10660362)

> Its not in any cops's interest to have all their actions even in the heat of the moment put under a microscope.

Honest police may feel it's in their interest. It protects them from false accusations, and from leal and reputational consequences of being associated with dishonest associates. Being honest, they might also want to see dishonest, criminal actions stopped and punished.

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Re:Leaked Documents Reveal Police Department Planted Drugs f... by taurath on Tuesday December 01, 2015 @09:05PM (#10660405)

To play devil's advocate: if I were the most decent nicest cop in the world I could see why I wouldn't want my every word and action on camera. It'd severely limit things I could say in confidence to anyone, and if I were say speaking to a victim of a crime its difficult to comfort people with a camera in their face. I'd be worried to being reduced to essentially the role of a call-center employee with every interaction graded not only for not screwing up, but also adherence to rigid policy.

Its dehumanizing and eats away at the core of any intelligent person wanting to ever be a cop.

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Re:Leaked Documents Reveal Police Department Planted Drugs f... by jessaustin on Tuesday December 01, 2015 @10:04PM (#10660630)

These concerns are spurious. You describe situations in which most cops, "nice" or not, would simply turn the camera off. Other situations include using the restroom or making personal phone calls. No one ever said the camera had to be on all the time; how would that even be enforced?

The camera should be on in any situation that might later be a subject of dispute. If it's off in such a situation, the courts should consider that a reason to disbelieve the cop who turned it off. A cop who doesn't possess the judgement to operate a camera, probably doesn't possess the judgement to carry a firearm either.

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Re:Leaked Documents Reveal Police Department Planted Drugs f... by newman314 on Tuesday December 01, 2015 @10:14PM (#10660662)

Well, given the mandate by some police departments to only hire the less intelligent...

I subscribe to the notion that cops absolutely need to be held to a higher standard, esp. given their potential for exponentially causing harm (because guns and LE powers).

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Re:Leaked Documents Reveal Police Department Planted Drugs f... by newman314 on Wednesday December 02, 2015 @12:41AM (#10661209)

Not clear why I'm getting the downvote here. Is it because I didn't cite a source for the line around hiring practices?

[1] http://thefreethoughtproject.com/court-police-departments-re...

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Re:Leaked Documents Reveal Police Department Planted Drugs f... by kps on Tuesday December 01, 2015 @09:36PM (#10660522)

  > Honest police may feel it's in their interest.

Yes. I choose to have a dashcam in my car; it has once proved me not at fault, but if I screw up, it could equally prove me at fault. I think it is in my interest because I think it is overwhelmingly likely that the truth will be in my favour.

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Re:Leaked Documents Reveal Police Department Planted Drugs f... by jessaustin on Tuesday December 01, 2015 @10:11PM (#10660651)

As a private citizen there is no expectation that one will have a dashcam, so with discretion it would be possible to benefit from good driving without being penalized for bad driving.

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