A Minneapolis Police Department officer wears a body camera while responding to a call on October 25, 2019. Photo by Tony Webster/Flickr. Earlier this month, the Ann Arbor Police Department announced it would be the first in Michigan to use artificial intelligence to analyze its officer’s body-worn camera footage. Twenty
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Canadian Dimension: Release of Tyre Nichols’ arrest video shows why police shouldn’t control body-cam footage
Tyre Nichols is seen leaning against a car during a brutal attack by five Memphis police officers on January 7, 2023. Photo courtesy the City of Memphis/AP. On January 7, 2023, Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man, was savagely pummeled, beaten, and electrocuted with a 50,000-volt Taser weapon by five
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Police dogs pose a serious risk to schoolchildren
Photo courtesy the Winnipeg Police Service K9 Unit/Facebook On December 14, a five-year-old elementary student at Samuel Burland School was bitten in the face by a Winnipeg Police Service dog while the K-9 unit was visiting the school. The injury sustained by the child required stitching by a plastic surgeon
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Body cameras do not fix the problem of police legitimacy
Body camera worn by an officer in North Charleston, South Carolina. Photo by Ryan Johnson/Wikimedia Commons. On May 27, Leonna Hale, a 26-year-old black woman, was shot multiple times and seriously wounded by Kansas City Police. A bystander video of the aftermath of the shooting quickly went viral, sparking immediate
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Where’s the transparency with an inactive police body camera?
Still image from a video showing Toronto Police officers pulling their firearms on rapper Twy Korchinksi Beals after he had finished shooting a music video. Screenshots via Twy Korchinksi Beals/Instagram. A short, one-minute and twenty-two second bystander video of Toronto Police with their guns drawn has gone viral on Instagram.
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Transparency is voided when police weaponize copyrighted music
A California police officer played Taylor Swift’s “Blank Space” in an attempt to prevent a Black Lives Matter activist from uploading a video to YouTube. Image courtesy the Anti-Police Terror Project. During a peaceful exchange with Black Lives Matter activists, an Alameda County Sheriff’s deputy in California was caught on
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Protecting police with hate speech legislation will not bring respect to law enforcement
According to professor Christopher Schneider, criminalizing public criticism of police conduct through hate speech legislation will do nothing to curtail police violence. Photo by Jason Hargrove/Flickr. Retired Winnipeg police officer Stan Tataryn recently filed a petition with the House of Commons that seeks to have police recognized as a group
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Social media has done more for transparency and accountability than police body-worn cameras
Protests against police violence in Danbury, Connecticut. Photo by Johnell Pannell/Unsplash. Following the circulation of a recent video of a violent altercation with police, Montréal mayor Valérie Plante has renewed calls for police body-worn cameras. The cameras are also currently being discussed in Winnipeg. Despite the push for technology touted
Continue readingCanadian Dimension: Killing of George Floyd proves police reform more urgent than ever
Thousands gathered on foot and in cars in south Minneapolis to protest against police violence and call for justice for George Floyd, May 26, 2020. Photo from Flickr. Eric Garner’s last words were “I can’t breathe.” On May 25, George Floyd, a black resident of Minneapolis, died after being handcuffed
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