"Tasers with cameras attached to them to record what happens when the weapons are deployed have made their way to New Brunswick." [via TNT]
"...to record what happens when the weapons are deployed..."
The taser camera is mounted on the taser. If I understand it correctly, the camera is activated and starts recording when the taser's safety switch is flicked. And then the taser gun is aimed directly at the subject.
The ConOps (concept of operations) of this sequence is all screwy. By definition, it's not going to record what happened to cause the officer to draw his taser in the first place. By design (sic), it's late.
Furthermore, it muddles the Taser Use Policy regarding the point when the potentially-lethal weapon should be drawn, safety switched, and aimed directly at the citizen. What is it? A camcorder, or a weapon? How many incidents are escalated to active violence because the officer thinks it's a camcorder, and the subject thinks it's a weapon?
Besides, once the taser is fired, we know exactly what will happen:
~Maybe it's effective.
~Maybe it's ineffective.
~Maybe it's a cause or contributor to death.
There are also reports about how these taser cams are sometimes blocked by the officer's grip on the weapon. And other reports that the device sometimes is a victim of the electromagnetic interference from the high voltage, noisy waveform being generated just inches away.
Taser-mounted cameras are defective in concept.
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