Ok, so point taken.ELB wrote: MechAg94 has the issue the DA is asking about. Getting a statement from the officer -- not only for investigating the incident, but for investigating his actions and possible wrongdoing -- is the point. While his body cam may not pick up things he sees that are out of view of the camera, other body cams will almost certainly pick up things he didn't see or hear, and could not have used in formulating his decisions at that moment. This may go for or against him in determining whether his actions were just and legal.
However, as has been pointed out, the body cam does not see what the officer sees with his eyes, it sees what it is pointed at.
So the officer may very well have seen something with his own eyes that justified his actions, that his body cam did not record because it was pointed in a different direction.
His fellow officers body cams however may have recorded the "thing" that was seen.
Should that 1st officer not have access to THE footage that recorded what HE saw, or only what HIS body cam saw?
I get this can be used by a bad cop, but is that justification for hindering a good cop?
We disagree that the BAD guys with a gun should not be cause for action against the good guys with a gun...Why are some suggesting that just because a bad cop might use others video footage unscrupulously, we should hinder and limit that good cop?