Technology records speeding cops
by
The video catches a Murfreesboro Police officer exceeding the speed limit by 20 and 30 miles an hour.
The car never activates Lights or sirens.
There is no ostensible sign of an emergency.
Many of you weighed in on the Messed Up web site voicing your opinion and voting your thoughts.
That was going to be the end of it. One story. One issue.
Then I got on the phone with long time law man Billy Weeks, a cop who speaks his heart and his mind.
Weeks is the Public Safety commissioner for the city of Lebanon. He is in charge of all police and fire units in the city.
In a tone that screams “Take no prisoners,” Weeks lets me know that officers in his department don’t speed because if they do, they are reprimanded.
How is that? I query.
Because we have cameras in the cars that activate automatically at 75 miles an hour, regardless of blue lights or sirens, he says so aggressively I feel like he would slam me down on the asphalt and handcuff me if not for the fact this is a phone call.
Just exceeding 75mph activates the cameras? I ask.
They go 75 miles an hour and boom! The cameras come on he tells me.
Weeks tells me the cameras are a great investigative tool and they keep officers on the straight and narrow.
That is exactly the sentiment I get when I meet Lebanon Police officer Steve Green.
The 11 year veteran tells me that he loves the camera system for many reasons, including the fact that it automatically activates at 75 mph.
“What about big brother?,” I ask him.
“I think it makes you a better cop,” he says, his eyes scanning the streets ahead. “It makes you stay in line”
The system is sophisticated. It documents a car’s speed as well as other driving details like braking, light and siren activation; even longitude and latitude.
“We have a responsibility to drive in a safe and prudent manner,” he says.
Why couldn’t an officer who violates policy shut off the camera and back up the video I ask.
All involve tell me that the tapes are never touched by officers. The system is so high tech that as soon as a patrol car gets near the police department, the video is sent via wireless transmitter to the police department’s hard drive where it is reviewed by supervisory staff.
“From a supervisor point of view, you can look at this as performance,” Lebanon Chief Scott Bowen says.
Bowen is the long time chief of Lebanon. On this day, he is seated in front of his flat screen computer monitor where he has instantaneous access to innumerable Lebanon police videos.
“Like I said, one of the greatest liabilities we have in law enforcement is vehicle accidents. We want to look at and review these things to allow us to review our officer’s performance.”
Bowen reiterates Week’s assertion that the system is a great investigative tool. He tells me about the instant accessibility of video and automatic DVD burns for court. He tells me about a video flagging system that allows officers to go back on tape and see notated video. This is particularly useful for chases where a suspect throws out contraband on the side of the road. He tells me about the time and effort the new video system saves over the old system where supervisors literally had to pull tapes and wind them and dub them off.
But Bowen also reinforces the fact that speeding officers have been identified and reprimanded thanks to the new technology.
“When we got the system a supervisor was looking at a video there was an incident where the speed threshold was broken and the video started recording and we spoke with the officer who did not have his emergency equipment on, so the captain spoke with him.”
Weeks tells me citizens have complained in the past about speeding officers. He tells me that he has investigated such allegations, and when found to be true, he has offered John and Jane Q public the chance to sign the speeding citations themselves.
Weeks says that so many complaints poured in about speeding cops coming and going from the law enforcement training academy that he changed the color scheme of his patrol cars to black and white, so he could tell complainants; “yes that’s one of ours, or no sir, that’s another agency speeding.”
With the new system in place, Weeks says these calls are less frequent.
It seems that system reminds police officers to police themselves.
It’s a good lesson for all of us.
Loading …
