Starting Monday, August 31st, LAPD will implement body cameras. It has taken two years for everything to come together.
With $1.5 million in private donations, 7,000 have been purchased with the first batch of 860 being distributed to officers within the next month.
LAPD's long-awaited body cameras will hit the streets on Monday: “This is a big deal” http://t.co/xzJX5NqWOh pic.twitter.com/V6wvmlkKjG
— Los Angeles Times (@latimes) August 26, 2015
There is one lingering issue however; who will get to see the videos? Many say that the withholding of the recordings from the public would undermine the transparency and officer accountability, and that the footage should be available to both sides so that there is an equal playing field.
There will be multiple entities reviewing footage which chief, Charlie Beck, says is the where the transparency comes in. Transparency, according to the spokesperson, doesn’t mean that they post every action on Youtube. And when we have an interaction with someone who has invited us into their homes, they have no intention of that interaction being made public. There would also be victims involved, and to make those things public would be re-victimizing them.
@andy_keatts @jtjordon 'Zimmerman has said she generally plans not to release any recordings…' http://t.co/ykmNO71bRb
— Ricky Young (@RickyWhy) August 20, 2015