Chicago Police Have Been Sabotaging Their Dash Cams

[Street Guardian USA]

http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/01/chicago-police-officers-tampered-with-dash-cams.html

 

[BMbler]

Last month the CPD found that 80 percent of its 850 dash cams do not record audio, and 12 percent don’t record video either.

Cunning¬!

 

[Sunny]

Criminals in uniform.

 

[dash riposki]

That's funny. I worked for a company that tampering with any of the security or tracking systems resulted in immediate termination, and that truck didn't move (Except to a repair shop) if it wasn't working.

Guess they need to do that with the cops.

'Sorry. All of the cars are in the shop waiting for dash cam repairs. Here's your SNOW SHOES, and your sector needs to be covered. Have a nice day.'

 

[Dashmellow]

Maybe they're just using cheap Chinese cameras with a high failure rate?

 

[dash riposki]

You would think if they were using cheap chinese cameras they would just switch out the cameras like changing a light bulb?

I bet the radios get fixed a lot quicker.

 

[Dashmellow]

You would think if they were using cheap chinese cameras they would just switch out the cameras like changing a light bulb?

I bet the radios get fixed a lot quicker.

You would think a joke is just a joke.

 

[dash riposki]

I forgot who i was replying to. My bad.

 

[Dashmellow]

I forgot who i was replying to. My bad.

Me too!

 

[erkme73]

Where are all those good cops everyone keeps saying is in the majority? You know, those elusive unicorn-like cops that stand up to corruption and abuses... I mean, how many cops must have known about intentionally damaged dash cameras? And how many came forward to report their fellow brother-in-blue about the damage? Right. Lots and lots of good cops!

 

[Daleg]

Where are all those good cops everyone keeps saying is in the majority? You know, those elusive unicorn-like cops that stand up to corruption and abuses... I mean, how many cops must have known about intentionally damaged dash cameras? And how many came forward to report their fellow brother-in-blue about the damage? Right. Lots and lots of good cops!

There are plenty of good cops, its just that you only hear about the bad ones. Good news is no news...bad news is great news...and that's what makes the news. As far as how many cops must have known about damaged cameras and report their fellow officers...it's not like one cop breaks it and says "Hey look at me guys, look what I did!" When you hire human beings...you get exactly that...human beings, nobody is perfect and cops like everybody else...whether its doctors, lawyers or mechanics...they all screw up at one time or another. If you have a bad experience with one doctor, do you assume all of them are the same? There are bad cops and there are good cops, you shouldnt write them all off with one swipe.

 

[dash riposki]

This also involves a major city police department with 'problems'. I'll guess the shop mechanics are union, also. There may be a an unofficial agreement to not fix these things quickly. Maybe Chicago needs a dash cam 'Serpico'?

I bet the majority of the cops who do the job right, aren't happy the cams aren't working, but can't buck the system to get them fixed.

Sometimes you see large trucks with a big sticker on it 'If you see this truck operating unsafely, please call XXX XXX XXX'. Maybe you haven't noticed, but often 'some' driver has obscured the phone number with paint, or something.
I've worked for companies where there was always a few drivers who would do that as soon as they picked up a trailer that wasn't altered.

If you're not doing something wrong, you usually don't have to watch your back.

 

[kamkar]

Yeah thats allways the problem, to be honest i think there is a much larger problem in journalism, these is the ppl thats supposed to inform us regular guys so we can make informed desissions when we vote and so on.

The words of Hiram warren johnson "in war the first victim is always the truth" is sadly not longer true, today truth is taking a hammering every second of the day.
PPl think " well i have the internet, i can find out everything about everyone" but they forget that what they find in most cases is what another person or group want you to find.

As dash riposki so rightly tell, even a little axle grease can obscure the truth.

 

[throrope]

"Last month the CPD found that 80 percent of its 850 dash cams do not record audio, and 12 percent don’t record video either."

These numbers are just too big to only blame the officers.

Some guys I work with are politically savvy, lazier than a porch hound on a hot summer day and just plain incompetent with respect to their responsibilities. Those same ne'er–do–wells take every opportunity to throw coworkers under the bus. When the boss tolerates this behavior and worse yet, comes down on the guy under the bus, the boss is actually the bigger problem.

IMHO, 80 percent of police dashcams out of commission is a good enough reason to toss Garry F. McCarthy, the Chicago police superintendent.

 

[kamkar]

I would say if 80% is malfunctioning, then it must be a issue that have slowly compounded, and nobody not catching this before 80% is frightening indeed

And i know about the guy under the bus part too, its usioally me that end up there cuz i say the things that need to be said, where other say the things other want to hear.
Damm bus cost me my last job but i dident jump in front of it, i was the guy on the sideline yelling " watch out there is a bus comming" right untill some one in middel management pushed me in the back.

I could entertain with stories of the same level of incompetence here, but sadly there is too many stories like that here and i would have to 2 finger type for several days.

 

[Rajagra]

These numbers are just too big to only blame the officers.

Too often management tell you to do the right thing, even when they know it can't work out for some reason.
e.g. I've worked somewhere where you had to follow precise procedures, but doing so meant it was impossible to complete all the tasks in the available time. Proving this was a case of simple maths.
Management ignored this. Just made the demand to follow procedures, waited for the work to get done, and all the time they were squeaky clean because they had plausible deniability.
Needless to say, anyone who refused to bend the rules was labelled as an underperformer. People who bent the rules got promoted for getting good results.

Often the louder an organisation claims to be ethical, the more of this BS is going on in the background.

Not having a go about police, this is more about human nature. I'm not really sure how a cop can do his job effectively if he is monitored continuously and can be taken down for minor transgressions.

 

[kuoh]

Constantly getting away with "minor" transgressions tends to lead to much larger ones, like shooting at unarmed civilians. They are entrusted with some very serious authorities, such as the ending of a life, and thus must be held to the highest standards. If they are unable to live up to those standards, then they should be "encouraged" to choose another profession, before a serious transgression occurs.

KuoH

I'm not really sure how a cop can do his job effectively if he is monitored continuously and can be taken down for minor transgressions.

 

[kamkar]

Yeah a slap on the wrist and a kick in the ass once in a while is not bad, as long as you know or can figure out why you get it i see nothing wrong in that.

Actually i would argue that in the big picture this exact thing happening is what have spurred on human evolution, you get beaten down, get up dust yourself off and then carry on ( not as usioal )

 

[Daleg]

Constantly getting away with "minor" transgressions tends to lead to much larger ones, like shooting at unarmed civilians.

Bull...you don't go from getting away with cussing one day and decide to shoot someone the next. Rajagra is simply stating that it's human nature to NOT want to be watched and it's hard to work when your under constant worry that you may say one thing wrong and get hammered for it by the boss. High standards are fine as long as the bar is not so high no one can reach it.

 

[Nigel]

Not having a go about police, this is more about human nature. I'm not really sure how a cop can do his job effectively if he is monitored continuously and can be taken down for minor transgressions.

The same way that we can drive our cars effectively when there is a dashcam in the car, or go shopping when the stores and streets of the town are full of surveillance cameras.

Of course, like the rest of use being monitored, their privacy should be protected by law as long as they do nothing criminal, so they should have nothing to worry about, if they do have something to worry about then the cameras are needed!