The epitome of incompetent City Goverment

[R Glass]

I have friends in the MPD and they said it's about 1500 cameras

Body camera roll out suspended indefinitely

MEMPHIS, TN (WMC) -
The City of Memphis announced at a news conference on Friday the roll out of Memphis Police Department's body cameras will be delayed indefinitely.

"I can't speculate on what the old administration was thinking. I can just deal with the cards that were dealt to me; we cannot role these out next week," Mayor Jim Strickland said. "The process was rushed, was not thought out."

Strickland said four things now have to be considered before using the body cameras.

First, how all of the video is going to be collected as far as workflow.

Second, how they are going to physically collect and save thousands of hours of video each day.

Third, major updates in infrastructure and technology that cost time and money.

Fourth, figuring out how to handle the manpower needed to find specific video when it is requested by media or is evidence in a case.

Strickland can't explain why all of these things were not considered before deadlines were placed.

"Promises made could not be kept, overly optimistic," Strickland said.

Shelby County District Attorney's Office originally said the body cameras will be rolled out one precinct at a time.

The original plan--announced September 2015--called for the city to implement the camera program department-wide in a shorter period of time. Leaders at the time also said the roll-out would happen before the end of October 2015. It was delayed until January 1, but now officials said it will be delayed indefinitely.

But, no matter the problems or lack of consideration in the past, Strickland said he is not going to risk the integrity of the whole body cam program.

"We would rather do this right than do it fast," Strickland said.

http://www.wmcactionnews5.com/story/30978160/body-camera-roll-out-suspended-indefinitely

[R Glass]

This was sent to me from a friend from MPD

Dear Director Armstrong,
It is with a heavy heart I find myself forced to write this letter. I have spent the last 16 years in the service of the City of Memphis. I have had the privilege of working with some of the finest men and women in Law Enforcement. There have been challenges and loss, but overall the years with the Memphis Police Department have been some of the finest of my life.
Sadly, all things must come to an end.
When I started this career, it was with the understanding that I would make certain sacrifices in exchange for certain benefits to provide for the long term welfare of my family. I have made those sacrifices. I have seen things that will haunt my dreams for the rest of my days. I have seen humanity at its worst. I have seen friends die. I did this of my own free will and I have no regrets. I knew what I was getting into, and this is a job that needs doing.
Unfortunately, over the last several years, the City Government has made repeated choices to not live up to their end of the bargain. To be blunt, I can no longer trust that they will honor their obligations when the time comes that I lay my shield down. I have been forced to seek out other employment that will provide for the long term welfare and stability of my family. I love the Memphis Police Department. I love the City of Memphis. I simply love my family more.
Please accept this letter of resignation effective as of the 22 day of January, 2016.
Respectfully Submitted,

[brice1967]

Everything about this stinks.  It can go south at any point.....

[R Glass]

I think it should be a 3rd party not connected to the PD because as soon as a flm is not saved, it will be accused of being a conspiracy. You definantly don't want the cop to have the power to decide what needs to be saved.

[desrt]

This doesn't have to be any more costly and time consuming than the officer coming off his shift spends two minutes with his camera plugged into a secure computer server downloading. Period. Storage, cross-referencing, secure access for the appropriate people - all taken care of by the program.

[clement4now]

Aside from a standard encounter, they could determine which parts of footage would contain actual criminal events by cross referencing an officers daily report, any criminal reports, and the police dispatch logs. Basically, they would compare dates and times, then match it to the video for comparison.

[Barb135]

I agree that they would have to make a separate department to handle the video.  They'd have to decide on how long the video would be stored.  There should be ways to compress the video so it wouldn't take as much storage space.

"They would only have to store footage relevant to actual crime incidents..."  How would they know which video could, at some point, be linked to actual crime incidents?  

[clement4now]

This is somewhat typical when upper administration tries to come up with a quick fix to appease the public. It's the old 'lets put a Band-Aid on this so everyone will be happy', scenario...

They should've had a completely separate department created specifically for video review, data collection, and cataloguing, in the first place. I'm sure corruption and tampering of evidence would have to be considered, so they would have to go with a separate office from PD. They would only have to store footage relevant to actual crime incidents...

[brice1967]

Yup, sounds like government to me.  Don't worry though.  Government has your back...