DC cops snatch camera, keep memory card one day after promising to stop

A day after Washington D.C.'s police chief issued orders to respect the right of citizens recording public police activity, an officer forced a man to hand over his cellphone and later failed to return the memory card. [Pixiq via Popehat]

• [Grahamers2002]

  Fix the pic.

  • [Rob Beschizza]

    Pic fixed!

• [Chuck]

  “We’ve traced the problem to a lone officer who neglected to read the memo.  We’ll send out a reminder.”

• [CSBD]

  The lone wolf responsible for this will have to attend sensitivity training.

• [EH]

  DC cops ain’t gonna let some woman tell them what to do.

• [madopal]

  On the article’s thread, an important point is brought up: having a policy is nice, but if an officer is willing to break the law and, say, publicly abuse a citizen, do you think they’re going to care about breaking a department policy over snatching a camera?  In for a pound, then what’s a penny more?

• [billstewart]

  Theft under color of law is illegal, right?

  • [Antinous / Moderator]

    When you say ‘illegal’, do you mean an epistemological ‘illegal’ or a phenomenological ‘illegal’?

• [Diogenes]

  I recognize Reagan, Gergen, Bush, Meese, and Baker.  Is that Brady hidden behind?

  • [Jake0748]

     Yes, Brady is in there.  And Walter Cronkite too.  I first saw this photo when I read Uncle Walter’s Autobio a few months ago. 

• [Bill Glover]

  pics or it didn’t happen

• [Hans]

  I love how police be excused of illegal behavior because they don’t know the law, but an average person can not.  

• [ferd]

  Luigi Vercotti voice, “Oh, ah, sorry Guv.  I meant to say, ‘You can take all da pictures you’d like, you just can’t keep ‘em.’ “

• [Cayo Bo]

  “…  failed to return the memory card.” Couldn’t that be determined as tampering with evidence?

• [angusm]

  Police chief Lanier subsequently said: “I didn’t say ‘Simon says’. Psych!”

• [Hakuin]

  easy answer

  http://qik.com/

  • [Lupus_Yonderboy]

    More specific answer: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.aclunj.policetape

  • [Jay Stephens]

     This, plus something like http://vimeo.com/45819231 so that it doesn’t work to just turn off the cell-tower like they do in Syria and Iran, and like will happen in the West within 5 years guaranteed (tho maybe with a bit of extra subtlety – “oh, the thousands of people whom we didn’t at all kettle into this tiny area, all trying to transmit data at once must have brought down the cell…”

    • [Jamie Norwood]

      They’ve already done it in the west, when they turned off cell service to BART trains to keep people from communicating and forming protests.

• [traalfaz]

  They have clearly shown what the expectation of truthfulness between police and civilians is.  Trouble is, if the police lie, the one officer has a week paid at the desk, or maybe paid leave.  If civilians lie, they go to jail.

• [Mark_Frauenfelder]

  Police know they can do anything with impunity. The only exception is a police officer who tries to stand up against police corruption. That guy is screwed.

• [Diogenes]

  To Protect and Serve (themselves)

• [Troy Holt]

  The policy announcement came out Tuesday, and the camera was seized (according to the article) last Friday.

  So, how exactly is the headline accurate?

  • [Troy Holt]

     Nevermind, the policy is dated the 19th. It was only announced on Tuesday.

    Carry on.

  • [Troy Holt]

     Link to the policy: http://www.pixiq.com/sites/default/files/mpd_go_304_19_vorus.pdf

    In case you want to carry a copy with you while in the District.

• [Eddie Perkins]

  Someone’s bucking for some paid vacation time. 

• [Daemonworks]

  That’s a very clear-cut case of theft. And quite possibly obstruction of justice, destruction of evidence…

  Funny how police never get charged with this stuff.