The Rockford Police say they need more money for law enforcement using cameras. We okay this believing that the police use the new cameras to tape criminal activity. The Rockford police have spent big bucks to buy these cameras. They are installed at many Rockford street intersections. Now later, we’ve learned that for the most part, the authorities do not using the new cameras to tape, but to merely monitor street traffic and activity through them. I don’t know what we are paying for. Chicago makes effective use of their cameras, and Rockford does not. Just think: what if the Rockford police had taped the vehicles entering and leaving the Greg Clark neighborhood on 2/6/08? They could have caught Greg Clark’s murderers! We asked them for the tapes. They claim to us that they have no tapes despite the cameras on the major streets by his neighborhood. So, what good are these cameras when you pay for them and then need the facts?
Of course, the Rockford Police department seems adverse to most of the beneficial uses of cameras. Second or third largest police department in the state, yet it was slow to adopt use of cameras in city police squad cars. It also still, stubbornly refuses to tape all police interrogations, especially for serious crimes. Is this simply being behind the technology or do they have something to hide? I don’t know about you, but I’d rather trust the impartial evidence of the tape, like Chicago, then have another Barmore incident or worse.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/sns-ap-us-chicago-cameras-everywhere,0,1636617.story
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