A Black Texas man who aspired to become a police officer spent 16 months fighting felony accusations that he assaulted two officers during a “welfare check” at his home. A jury acquitted him after his son recorded video of the arrest.
The video caught Huntsville police and prosecutors by surprise, Stewart said, because they had expected to secure a conviction based on the officers’ accounts.
The cops accused Stewart of spitting in one of their faces and shoving the other officer, but none of that is captured on video.
“I don’t like to call people liars,” Stewart told ABC 13 Houston after his acquittal.
“But fabrication, yes. Cover up, yes.”
Every police officer should have to wear a body cam at all times while on duty. That body camera should have a bright outward pointing light on it and other means of clearly indicating it’s recording.
It should also be legal to kill any on-duty police officer that turns their camera off. See a cop without their camera on? Perfectly legal to pull out a gun and drop the pig.
At this point I will never believe a single cop’s word.
Police testimony should not be allowed. The body cam is their only voice. If they turn it off, then they have no testimony, so without it, you better have some other evidence, or the guy is going free.
There are times it’s reasonable for an officer to turn their camera off. E.g. some people might be willing to share information, but not go to court over it. Turning off their camera to get information unofficially then makes sense.
That said, a malfunctioning body camera should be seen in the same light as destruction of evidence. It is assumed to be the worst case, unless proven otherwise, or reasonably explained.
FYI, apparently a lot of UK police love the body cams. It makes their paperwork so much easier. It’s also apparently quite satisfying to watch a hungover idiot realise exactly how rude they were to the officer trying to defuse things outside a pub.
officer testimony should be inadmissable. they should be required to just use body camera. its on them to have them always going.