How technology can let a civilian see what a cop sees….

I am for embracing technology to improve performance, not for the sake of buying a new toy. Digitizing reports, forms and imagery is a godsend with all we do.

I have occasionally used digital recorders to take statements and I have a small body camera I bought from Amazon.com for DWI investigations. Nothing impresses a jury member like the sight of the driver at the scene, intoxicated.

With that as the background, you need to see this:

'The video is unbiased'
Daytona's police chief says the cameras prove that most officers are following the law.

In the video Daytona Beach released Wednesday, officers are captured as they kick in the front door to force their way into the home on Magnolia Avenue in Daytona Beach.

As three officers entered, Green ran into a bedroom and pulled his victim on top of him as he held a knife to her chest.

After police repeatedly told Green to let the woman go, Green shoved the knife down in an attempt to stab her. That's when two officers opened fire.

Green was shot several times, and the woman was struck once in the right arm. They both survived.

"I think they followed policy and the law," said Chitwood. "I was very proud of everything they did."

Danny Banks, the special agent in charge for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement's Orlando region, said this kind of video is valuable when it comes to investigating the behavior of officers.

FDLE investigators review more than 20 shootings involving law-enforcement officers in Central Florida region every year, Banks said.

In each case, agents interview officers and witnesses in an attempt to recreate the scene and determine if the shooting was justified.

"The video is unbiased," Banks said. "It's the closest that we have right now to actually giving us the perspective that the officer was seeing."

This gives one the view of how fast a cop can need to investigate an incident and then take action. Literally in seconds the officer has to decide to shoot or not shoot as a man holds a knife to a woman. A very common scenario used in training, but this is very real.

Now fast forward this to three months from now when the suspect lawyer is complaining about excessive force and of course wants a multi-million dollar settlement with the city and wants the officers prosecuted for excessive force, etc. A grand jury will look at that video and likely "no-bill" in a matter of minutes as there was reasonable fear of for loss of life or serious bodily injury on the part of the woman. And the fact this video is available (and will get presented to the plaintiff in the civil trail) may convince the defendant a civil action is a worthless effort, saving money and time.

This video came from PoliceOne.com and the referenced article shows some of the issues with body cameras (cost, storage issues, etc).

We have advanced from the days of "Press hard, you're making four copies". Now if we could come up with a Phaser! :<)