Teh One Who Knocks
04-09-2014, 11:15 AM
By Ted Thornhill - The Daily Mail
http://i.imgur.com/2Wzd3NH.jpg
Around 50 Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) patrol cars have had their recording devices deliberately disabled, an investigation found.
All LAPD police cars are fitted with equipment that automatically records what officers say while outside their vehicles, but antennas for the system in half of the estimated 80 cars in one south LA division were missing, with 10 having been removed in another division.
Along with footage shot from an in-car camera - which activates automatically when the emergency lights and siren are switched on - the audio-recording equipment guards against members of the public making false accusations against officers and deters malpractice.
An officer’s voice is beamed back to the in-car recording equipment from a transmitter in his or her belt.
The removal of the antenna doesn’t necessarily mean the voice cannot be recorded – but it does cut down the range by up to a third, according to LAPD’s expert on the equipment, Sgt. Dan Gomez.
What will have caused extra worry to police chiefs is that antennas had been removed from cars that patrol areas of Los Angeles – such as Watts, Jordan Downs and Nickerson Gardens – where community relations with the police are often seriously fractured.
Police Commission president Steve Soboroff told The LA Times: ‘This equipment is for the protection of the public and of the officers. To have people who don't like the rules to take it upon themselves to do something like this is very troubling.’
LAPD chiefs were informed that the antennas were being tampered with in the summer of 2013, but did not attempt to track down who was responsible.
This was deemed as a futile endeavour as several teams of officers use the same car.
Instead warnings were issued and a system put in place that logs the status of the antennas on cars from shift to shift.
President Soboroff added: ‘On an issue like this, we need to be brought in right away.’
LAPD Chief Charlie Beck had informed the Police Commission in September that the issue was being dealt with.
However, an investigation into a shooting incident in February in which audio recordings of officers at the scene varied hugely in quality indicated that efforts to deal with the problem hadn’t fully succeeded.
http://i.imgur.com/2Wzd3NH.jpg
Around 50 Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) patrol cars have had their recording devices deliberately disabled, an investigation found.
All LAPD police cars are fitted with equipment that automatically records what officers say while outside their vehicles, but antennas for the system in half of the estimated 80 cars in one south LA division were missing, with 10 having been removed in another division.
Along with footage shot from an in-car camera - which activates automatically when the emergency lights and siren are switched on - the audio-recording equipment guards against members of the public making false accusations against officers and deters malpractice.
An officer’s voice is beamed back to the in-car recording equipment from a transmitter in his or her belt.
The removal of the antenna doesn’t necessarily mean the voice cannot be recorded – but it does cut down the range by up to a third, according to LAPD’s expert on the equipment, Sgt. Dan Gomez.
What will have caused extra worry to police chiefs is that antennas had been removed from cars that patrol areas of Los Angeles – such as Watts, Jordan Downs and Nickerson Gardens – where community relations with the police are often seriously fractured.
Police Commission president Steve Soboroff told The LA Times: ‘This equipment is for the protection of the public and of the officers. To have people who don't like the rules to take it upon themselves to do something like this is very troubling.’
LAPD chiefs were informed that the antennas were being tampered with in the summer of 2013, but did not attempt to track down who was responsible.
This was deemed as a futile endeavour as several teams of officers use the same car.
Instead warnings were issued and a system put in place that logs the status of the antennas on cars from shift to shift.
President Soboroff added: ‘On an issue like this, we need to be brought in right away.’
LAPD Chief Charlie Beck had informed the Police Commission in September that the issue was being dealt with.
However, an investigation into a shooting incident in February in which audio recordings of officers at the scene varied hugely in quality indicated that efforts to deal with the problem hadn’t fully succeeded.