Page 1 Page 2 Page 3 Page 4 Page 5 Page 6 Page 7 Page 8 Page 9 Page 10 Page 11 Page 12 Page 13 Page 14 Page 15 Page 16 Page 17 Page 18 Page 19 Page 20 Page 21 Page 22 Page 23 Page 24 Page 25 Page 26 Page 27 Page 28 Page 29 Page 30 Page 31 Page 32 Page 33 Page 34 Page 35 Page 36 Page 37 Page 38 Page 39 Page 40AMERICAN POLICE BEAT: NOVEMBER 2016 23 Bodycam study – results impressive Midlands, West Yorkshire, and Cambridgeshire, as well as the Rialto and Ventura police departments in Cali- fornia. The goal of the study was to find out if cops wearing cameras had any impact on the number of complaints made against the police by the public. Published in the journal Criminal Justice and Behav- iour, the study showed there were 113 complaints made against officers during the trial year period, compared with 1539 in the 12 months before – an astronomical drop of 93 percent. Dr. Ariel, who is based at the Cambridge Institute of Criminology, told Danny Shaw, “I cannot think of any other single intervention in the history of policing that so dramatically changed the way that officers behave, the way that suspects behave, and the way they interact with each other.” “Once the public is aware they are being recorded, once they know that every- thing they do is caught on tape, they will undoubtedly change their behaviour be- cause they don’t want to get into trouble. “Individual officers be- come more accountable and modify their behaviour accordingly while the more disingenuous complaints from the public fall by the wayside once footage is likely to reveal them as frivolous.” Even among “control” groups, where officers were sent out without cameras attached, complaints plum- meted. Assistant Chief Constable Simon Megicks, from Hert- fordshire Police, who was involved in the research, said a number of factors were behind the decline in complaints. “It is the moderating fac- tor that the camera brings in terms of people’s behavior that I think it helps us, the police, to be at the top of our game,” he said. For law enforcement one of the biggest pros of body cams are the increase in con- victions, particularly in do- mestic violence cases where victims are sometimes reluc- tant to co-operate, making it difficult to make an arrest. One downside of the cam- eras, at least according to this report, is that officers wearing the body cams may be more likely to be at- tacked. Findings from the study indicated that the rates of assaults on police of- ficers were 15 percent higher when officers were wearing body-worn cameras. To read the complete study, Google: Sage Journals Criminal Justice and Behavior Contagious Accountability. Continued from page one One of the problems for the “Muslims go home!” crowd is the fact that they often target Sikhs for harass- ment and ridicule. For the record, Sikhs are not Muslims. Just ask Harinder Bains. He’s the hero who spotted suspect Ahmad Khan Ra- hami sleeping in the door- way of his bar and called it in immediately. Obviously the officers that took Rahami into custody are heroes. But if it wasn’t for Bains they might not have ever had the opportunity to catch a would-be killer. Bains immigrated to the United States from India 20 years ago. “When I heard about the attacks and realized the suspect was sleeping in a doorway across the street, I did what any American would do,” he said during a press conference. “I called the police. I’m not a hero. The police are heroes. The EMTs are the heroes. Everyone who is working to bring New York and New Jersey together today are heroes.” But Bains was also brave enough to point out that making that call didn’t come without risks. Bains emphasized that he could have been mistaken for the suspect and spoke powerfully about the need to make calls and decisions based on evidence as op- posed to bias or emotion. “As a Sikh American, I realize that I could have been mistaken for the per- petrator,” he said. “My faith teaches me justice and toler- ance for all, and I know that I’m lucky to live in a com- munity that shares this view. I want to remind Ameri- cans that after an attack, we should target people based on evidence, not their faith or their country of origin or on their accent.” After all, that’s what the USA is supposed to be all about. I just did what any other American would do PRODUCTS FOR LAW ENFORCEMENT SINCE 1994 Now Offering Covert-Systems Products Surveillance / Video Vans / Bait Cars www.twitco.com 800-899-8948