Petition to implement body cameras for the Madison Police Department.
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Within the last three years, two of my neighbors, both unarmed, were killed by Madison police within a block of my apartment. Two beautiful souls extinguished. Neither officer was prosecuted.
Musician Paulie Heenan. Killed November 9, 2012.
A bit of Paulie's music:
Tony Robinson Jr. Killed March 6, 2015.
Tony Robinson dancing in some homevideo:
The current per capita rate of fatal officer involved shootings in Madison is higher than in most other large U.S. cities, and has been increasing significantly over the last two decades. Comparison with New York City:
I’ve set up
a petition on change.org asking for implementation of body cameras by the Madison Police Department, along with effective policy to enforce their use.
Studies of body cameras have found them to have a deterrent effect on police violence. For example, a randomized controlled trial in Rialto, CA found a highly significant 59% reduction in overall police use of force (p<0.001) and a significant 87.5% reduction in citizen complaints of misconduct for officers wearing body cameras versus those not wearing body cameras. Here’s a graph showing the observed reduction in use of force:
All additional formal studies of police body cameras to date (studies in: Plymouth, UK; Renfrewshire/Aberdeen, UK; Mesa, AZ; Phoenix, AZ; Birmingham South, UK; Ventura, CA) appear to have produced results consistent with the Rialto, CA trial, finding decreases in use of force by police and decreases in citizen complaints.
The current push to widely implement body cameras really started with Michael Brown’s family, and their petition to the White House for a law requiring all police to wear body cameras.
Implementation of body cameras is one of the recommendations of the President's Task Force on 21st Century Policing. Black Lives Matter Campaign Zero, The National Urban League, the ACLU, and many other civil rights organizations are now advocating for implementation of body cameras. Poll results show overwhelming support for their implementation (e.g. 88%-89% support), including an overwhelming majority of people of color.
I’ll further note that in every recent excessive use of force incident where an officer has been convicted, the conviction would not have occurred without video evidence – examples from 2015 include the conviction of LAPD Officer Mary O'Callaghan of LAPD for killing Alesia Thomas, the conviction of Huntsville Officer Brett Russell for beating Gary Wayne, the guilty plea of Baltimore Police Officer Vincent Cosom Jr. for assaulting Kollin Truss, and the conviction of Des Moines Police Officer Collin Boone for assaulting Orville Hill. Cases that are now being prosecuted specifically because of body camera video (that would otherwise never have been prosecuted) include: University of Cincinnati Police Officer Ray Tensing, for killing Samuel DuBose; Albuquerque Police Officers Keith Sandy and Dominique Perez, for killing James Boyd; Tusla Reserve Police Office Bob Bates for killing Eric Courtney Harris (and I’ll also note Hummelstown Police Officer Lisa Mearkle being prosecuted for the killing of David Kassick on the basis of tasercam video).
Documentation on video is not a sufficient condition for accountability, but it is a necessary condition. And the cameras and video are facilitating accountability in some cases (where otherwise there would have been no accountability) and are fundamentally changing the national conversation.
So please read the petition and, if you agree, please sign and propagate the petition (on Facebook, etc.). I’d encourage everyone to sign and spread this petition, but signatures from Madison residents, or those from nearby communities, might be especially helpful in influencing city officials.
Also, please check out Black Lives Matter Campaign Zero.