AXON the wrong question

"The AXON project is unfortunately a positive thing right now because the level of distrust is so high," said Raj Jayadev, director of the community organization Silicon Valley De-Bug. "But it doesn't address the more fundamental problem: What stereotypes police may carry when they see people of color on the street and make assumptions about character."

This head-mounted camera system for the San Jose police is from the Taser folks-- remember them? Actually that doesn't bother me, as someone is going to perfect and sell this as a solution. The issue is that (see below) it's officer-activated, which means it's also officer-deactivated as desired. We should also recall from the Rodney King tapes and so many other incidents that having an event recorded is no guarantee that everyone will agree on "what happened."

San Jose police test head-mounted cameras for officers

By Sharon Noguchi
snoguchi@mercurynews.com
Posted: 12/18/2009 09:09:12 PM PST
Updated: 12/19/2009 03:50:18 AM PST

San Jose police, under fire for interactions with the public that have turned violent, on Friday launched a pilot project equipping officers with head-mounted cameras to record contacts with civilians.

Officers will activate the cameras, about the size of a Bluetooth device and attached by a headband above the ear, every time they respond or make contact with a person. At the end of the officer's shift, the recording will be downloaded to a central server.