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Comment by s_q_b | Hacker News Reader

If you're not intelligent enough to know that law enforcement interactions with the public are recorded on dashcams, maybe you shouldn't go into police work...

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But that's part of my point. When most cops became cops that wasn't the case at all.

When did most cops become cops? Shortly after discharging from the military. Amped up on PTSD and adrenaline addiction. Yeah, I want a camera on them every second of the day, whether they are on duty or off duty. The mentally ill should not have guns. We've had a steady drum beat that "common sense gun control" should include a psychological test. I don't think most cops coming into the job straight out of the military would be able to pass the same test proposed for civilians.

The majority of police forces have psychological testing for applicants and routinely dismiss otherwise fit, healthy and intelligent individuals because the psych came back inconclusive.

Most big city cops are not ex-military. In smaller and rural departments it's more common, but the demographic for Chicago area cops is almost certainly working class families from the greater Chicago area, and most probably already started thinking about starting the process soon after graduating high school.

We're talking about dash cams here, not body cams. They had TV shows in the 90s based on police chase videos from dash cams. World's Wildest Police Videos first aired in 97, though I suspect there were shows prior to that, the names I cannot recall. So police dash cams have been in the popular culture for almost 20 years. I think cops in Chicago (or any city) knew what they were signing up for at this point.

Most police officers are not just older workers forced to adapt. According to the NYPD, the median age of their academy graduates is 26.

Younger beat officers are overwhelmingly utilized for patrol duties. They knew or should have known dashcams could be in use during during those patrols.

Sucks to be them. How is that different to any other profession where things changed with new technology or market trends?

Most people working in most offices in 1980 didn't have to use PCs either. In 1990 most of them suddenly did.

Tough shit. They either abused their power or stood by while their colleagues abused their powers.

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