In less than 3 minutes! Board of Estimates will be discussing this item tonight.
The Case Against Body Cameras in less than 3 minutes
When Max Rameau was in town Friday for his speech “Forward from Ferguson: The Case for Community Control Over the Police”, he made the argument that I was thinking about – that I think about every time people want the police to use more video cameras. Here is a link to the video I posted earlier this morning, starting at the relevant part. It starts at 16:08.
In the video he says:
For decades now, but particularly the last few years, the government has been trying extremely hard to spy on our every move. We have seen this as a result of the Edward Snowden revelations, that the extent to what they spy on us is just shocking, they spy our phone calls, our emails, our bank transactions. The Supreme Court is lowering the bar that is required for the police to survey us. The government is expanding, trying very hard to expand the way that we are spying on us and people are fighting against that, actively. Yet, at this time when we are asked what are our demands, the biggest demand that has emerged at this time is that we are demanding that the police wear video cameras 24 hours a day to video tape us at every time of the day. We cannot reasonably expect that that demand will result in less police killings because we have seen that when they are video taped and they know they are being video taped, they still kill and they still get away with it. We cannot make a demand that will not get us to the objective that we are seeking, and expect it to get us to the objective that we are seeking. We will not get more than we demand. The way to get our demands is to develop ideological clarity about the nature of the problem, and the solution. There can be no revolution without revolutionary demands. There can be no end to police terror, without demands that actually end police terror. If we have that ideological clarity that informs our analysis of the situation, and the solutions that we want in order to end this injustice we are protesting. The police are shooting and choking us on video and have zero consequences to face as a result. The fact that our central demand emerging during this time is that we have the police video tape us all the time, by the way, the video would not video tape the police, they are attached to the police and video tape us. The primary demands that we have video running all the time, demonstrates a lack of ideological clarity at this time. And if this were reversed, and if the police were coming to us and saying would you please sign this piece of paper that would give us the opoortunity to video tape you 24 hours a day, we would be protesting that.
Board of Estimates Consideration Tonight
We’re going to spend $30,000 to study if we should have video cameras! This is the item “Declaring the City of Madison’s intention to study the potential use of body cameras by the Madison Police and the framework for a pilot study through the creation of an ad
hoc committee and a community and employee engagement process.” This item is on the BOE agenda at the request of Ald. Bidar-Sielaff prior to the additional referrals having considered the item.
The total information available at this time is as follows:
Fiscal Note: It is anticipated this study will be accomplished with existing staff resources and $30,000 in the 2015 Operating Budget (adopted Common Council Amendment #8).
Title: Declaring the City of Madison’s intention to study the potential use of body cameras by the Madison Police and the framework for a pilot study through the creation of an ad hoc committee and a community and employee engagement process.
Body:
WHEREAS, the City of Madison is committed to be engaged in the national and local dialogue on the role of law enforcement; andWHEREAS, the Madison Police Department (MPD) is committed to continuing to be a partner with the community in setting policies and practices that reflect our city’s longstanding tradition of community policing; and
WHEREAS, on December 2, 2014, the MPD presented a report to the Common Council on the use of body cameras; and
WHEREAS, the City’s 2015 Operating Budget requests the creation of an ad hoc committee to 1) guide, develop and implement a community and employee engagement process and timeline, 2) develop a policy on the use of body cameras, and 3) develop a framework for a pilot study to occur in 2016; and
NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Common Council requests that the Mayor hire a project manager by March 2, 2015. The project manager will:
· Create a timeline and processes to engage the community on the topic of policing and, specifically, body cameras. The community engagement process will include various segments of our community including, but not limited to, communities of color, immigrant communities, crime and domestic violence victims and the LGBTQ community;
· Work with City managers to develop and implement an employee engagement process to better understand their perspectives. Specific focus should be given to MPD, MFD, ITS and DCR employees;
· Research best practices by communicating with personnel in cities using or considering the use of body cameras; and
· Write a report summarizing the findings of the above-mentioned engagement and research for use in the ad hoc committee’s deliberations.BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that the Mayor will appoint a Community Policing and Body Camera Ad Hoc Committee. The Ad Hoc Committee will be made up of nine members, which will include one representative each of MPD, MFD, DCR, ITS, five community representatives with three of those seats designated for a domestic abuse victim services agency, an organization serving communities of color and an organization serving the LGBTQ community. The Ad Hoc Committee is charged with making recommendations to the Common Council on 1) how to continue to ensure positive relationships and trust between MPD and our citizens and 2) the framework for a pilot study for the use of body cameras including but not limited to policies and practices and their impact on citizens and City agencies and the fiscal implications.
BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED that the Ad Hoc Committee will present its recommendations to the Common Council at its August 4, 2015, meeting.
Seems to me the arguments on this issue should be:
1) We don’t want you to video tape us without our permission 24 hours per day.
2) You don’t need to spend $30,000 on this, that would be much better spent on services to these very same communities – like the $15,000 spent in Allied Drive to get people to grocery stores and to get prescriptions, that seems more effective.
3) If you’re going to have a committee, don’t have it be nearly half staff members, have more community members and a requirement that they ask people who live in the heavily policed neighborhoods what they want in ways that they feel safe telling us.
I don’t know why Shiva Bidar-Sielaff wanted this discussed tonight, I hope it was for these reasons.
