Strong disagree. Under many circumstances, law enforcement officers are allowed to enter places where people have a reasonable expectation of privacy. Just because the police are allowed in such locations doesn’t mean the general public should get to watch.

Let’s say you fall in the shower and you are badly injured. You call 911, and the police are first to arrive. Officers enter your house and try to keep you calm until an ambulance arrives.

You think police body camera footage of you, naked and injured on your bathroom floor, should be “transparently available and searchable”?

I mean, I think probably yes, and likely that society would be better off if people agreed with me but I understand that my view is significantly outside the norm. I will happily agree that for practical reasons we can agree on some limits, however I think we should still err on the side of transparency in these situations.

How do you feel about the weaker claim that footage of all police action in public spaces should be available and searchable?

>How do you feel about the weaker claim that footage of all police action in public spaces should be available and searchable?

I have trouble with that, too.

Being a crime victim should not mean that video footage of yourself in the immediate aftermath of the crime is publicly available and searchable. Imagine that a young girl is walking her family dog in a park, and that she is attacked and raped. The girl calls the police, who respond to the park. I don’t think that footage should be publicly available and searchable.

Also, “footage of all police action in public spaces” would routinely include information like people’s names, addresses, phone numbers, and social security numbers.

I am in favor of transparency, but I don’t think that absolute transparency would be a net benefit to society.