A Los Angeles county sheriff’s deputy shot and killed a 27-year-old woman who had called 911 to report that she was under attack by a former boyfriend, police officials and lawyers for the victim’s family said on Thursday. Records show the deputy had killed another person in similar circumstances three years ago.

On 4 December, Niani Finlayson called police and “reported that her boyfriend would not leave her alone and then screaming and sounds of a struggle could be heard”, the LA sheriff’s department (LASD) said in a statement. When deputies arrived at the apartment in Lancaster, a city in the northern region of LA county, they could hear screaming, LASD said.

Finlayson was inside with her nine-year-old daughter and had been injured by her ex-boyfriend and wanted him removed, her family’s attorneys said. The exact circumstances that led to the fatal shooting are unclear and LASD has so far declined to release body-camera footage.

  • JCreazy
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    1 year ago

    All body cam footage needs to be monitored by a third party. Police departments shouldn’t have the option of withholding body cam footage. It should be a made available public and made available immediately after the incident.

    • ThatWeirdGuy1001@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Simply turning off the body camera for any reason other than bathroom use should be a felony. Stripped of all credentials and banned from participating in any govt agency there is.

      • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        If that’s the only time they can turn them off, then they’re gonna have a lot of bathroom breaks.

        Besides, what’s the worst that could happen? We find out they need more fiber and don’t wash their hands? Cameras aren’t pointing at the cops.

    • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Record continuously, with the feed streaming through BT/Wi-Fi connections in the car (the. From the car, streaming in real time, along with every other camera they have,)

      The feeds are all monitored in real time by dispatchers. (This would help in crisis response, too, coordinating responding officers better in, for example, an active shooter,)

      Cops don’t have access to the main storage, but they get copies for things, so they can’t tamper with it…. And it doesn’t get to be deleted until reviews of the tapes happen.

        • FuglyDuck@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          It’s like, half the cost of one of their tanks, but it wouldn’t be that hard to run a dedicated intranet across places with the necessary bandwidth.

          down the stream’s quality when off network. This is why the squad car uplinks- gives you a place to buffer if something happens. (And the body cam, too, when they have to get out.)

          The important part is they don’t get to delete it, or turn it off. The real time monitoring would be intermittent, but eventually oversight happens. (Maybe even flag everytime it does drop)

    • jmcs@discuss.tchncs.de
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      1 year ago

      In the absence of footage or any other direct evidence, anything that cops say in court should be considered a lie. That’s the only way to level the playing field in the justice system and to stop effectively rewarding bad/criminal behavior on the part of law enforcement.