What happened to accountability?

"IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) -- State legislators around the country are pushing to make it much harder for the public to obtain police officer body camera videos, undermining their promise as a tool people can use to hold law enforcement accountable.

Lawmakers in at least 15 states have introduced bills to exempt video recordings of police encounters with citizens from state public records laws, or to limit what can be made public."

Supposedly for the privacy of those shown in the video. Uhhh I'm sorry, but if they get a request for a video for a particular incident, such as a shooting, or a beating during an arrest those should be made available IMMEDIATELY!!!!

Otherwise they are just trying to hide something.

The largest issue here isn't "Privacy Concerns" It is "Accountability Concerns" Thuggish Police don't want to be held accountable for their actions. "We Are The Police!! Do What We Say Or Go To Jail Or DIE, And No One Will Hold Us Accountable"

That thinking is why I got OUT of Law Enforcement.

I got on doing Security for the Housing Authority NOT because I wanted to carry a gun and a badge, but because I REALLY wanted to help people. To be able to live without worrying about dope dealers and thugs trying to rob them or hurt them. And at first I felt I was actually making a difference. I was actually called Sergeant Psycho because I kept locking up dope dealers and prostitutes and any other thugs I could catch and I was the ONLY WHITE Security Officer who would and could work alone. Then I was suddenly having threats called in against me. I was working the Wellston Senior Citizen Building, an apartment complex with a small rec room and an office for the use of us Security types, and I was returning to that office after running off some teenagers at 3 am in the morning, when the whole building was surrounded by cops. Someone had called 911 and threatened to kill me then hung up. Hence all the cops, from 4 different agencies. The Company transferred me to working grocery stores and pharmacy's for a few months because of that. It took months for me to get transferred to the Kinloch Housing Projects.

I found out about a year after that had happened, that the person who called in the death threat was one of my fellow officers. He was getting paid by the local drug dealers to stay out of the way and let their people sell dope. And I kept locking them up and seizing their product and their cash.

A person who I considered a good friend, went on to join a police department full time and even became a Lieutenant in his department, recently went to prison for 5 years for covering for a dealer.

Those are reasons why I got out of Law Enforcement.

Because I couldn't TRUST the people I was working with.

And these bills being filed for to put the bodycams footage out of reach of the people?

It is so, bad police officers do NOT, get held accountable for their actions.

I'm sorry, if the officers could be trusted, we wouldn't NEED to have them wear cameras in the first place.

So NO,  you don't GET to keep the video private.  If anything, each officer needs to wear a body cam AND a digital voice recorder to record every word coming out of their mouths while they are on duty.  Also there needs to be several cameras in EACH police car.  One facing forward, one facing the officer and one facing the backseat.  And EVERY room in EVERY police station needs to have a camera monitoring it 24/7.

NONE OF THIS would be necessary, if Law Enforcement could be TRUSTED.

But the vast majority of them have proven, they CANNOT be TRUSTED.