Ever-Present Cameras Aid Investigators, Catch Rogue Cops
By ANDRA VARIN
AOL News

(July 21) -- When Agnes Lawless was arrested on charges of assaulting a Philadelphia police officer, she protested that it was the cop who had attacked her. He grabbed her from behind and thrust a gun against her neck, she said.
Three of Lawless' friends and a convenience store clerk backed her story, but the judge was inclined to believe the officer -- until the video surfaced.

It's an inescapable fact of modern life: An increasing number of businesses and even private homes have security cameras.

An increasing number of people have cameras or video recorders on their cell phones. An increasing number of police patrol cars are equipped with video cameras. Whatever you are doing, chances are it's being recorded.
And those omnipresent cameras can be a double-edged sword for police. While officers can use video to identify suspects, any police misconduct may also end up on videotape.

"More and more police officers are understanding that this could affect them," said Jack McDevitt, associate dean of the College of Criminal Justice at Northeastern University in Boston.

In Lawless' case, security cameras inside a Lukoil convenience store in Northeast Philadelphia captured her Aug. 17, 2008, confrontation with police Officer Alberto Lopez Sr. Lopez said he arrested Lawless, then 20, when the young woman "flipped out" and began striking out at him.
But security video shows Lawless standing at the store counter when Lopez approaches from behind and shoves a gun against her neck, then punches her in the face.

"He hit me with his left hand, and he had his gun in his right hand," Lawless told the Philadelphia Daily News. "He pushed his gun into the left side of my neck. It caused a scrape-type bruise on my neck."

Lawless and her friends said the officer screamed at her, "''You think you can hit my son and get away with it, you think you can f--- with me?'"
About 20 minutes before the confrontation, Lawless and her friends had been involved in a fender-bender with Lopez's son.
The convenience store clerk told authorities that first Lopez and then two other police officers visited the store and asked him to erase the security tape. Instead, the tape was turned over to police Internal Affairs investigators.
Charges against Lawless were dropped. Lopez faces a disciplinary hearing. Lawless is contemplating a suit against the city.
Ever since a bystander videotaped Los Angeles police officers beating black motorist Rodney King in 1991, police officers have been aware that Big Brother could be watching. So what makes some cops lose their cool on camera?
"Their emotions get the best of them," said Rande Matteson, chairman of the criminal justice department at Saint Leo University in Florida. "There's no excuse for their behavior, but it's emotion. It's adrenaline."
In some cases, an officer may believe he can get around any video evidence. "For a few officers, it's so ingrained in who they are and what they do," McDevitt said. "They think they can just lie their way out of it and nobody will notice."

An off-duty Chicago police officer was charged with beating a bartender half his size after she refused to serve him more drinks. Video shows 250-pound Anthony Abbate punching and kicking 125-pound Karolina Obrycka as she lies on the ground.

Abbate maintained he was acting in self-defense, but a judge found him guilty of aggravated battery. He could have gotten five years in prison, but instead was sentenced in June to two years of probation. Although police cruiser cameras routinely record events, no one regularly checks the videotape. Only when an incident is called into question do investigators go back and look at the video.

And ordinary citizens caught in a dispute with police might be reluctant to ask for video. "Most people are a little bit uncomfortable complaining about the police," said McDevitt. "For people of color and young people, their feeling is, 'I'm not going to put myself at risk.'"

A patrol car camera recorded Birmingham, Ala., police officers beating a suspect who had been ejected from his vehicle following a chase on Jan. 23, 2008. Anthony Warren was unconscious, but police hit and kicked him anyway.
Although authorities believe several officers and supervisors knew of the video's existence, it did not surface until a year after the incident. Police Chief A.C. Roper fired five officers involved in the beating, saying they acted in a "shameful" manner.
Most officers have no cause to worry about the cameras in their cruisers. "The rogue police officers, those are in the minority," said Matteson, a retired federal law enforcement agent.
In fact, videotapes can often vindicate a police officer accused of rude or aggressive behavior, especially in cases such as traffic stops. "It's more often the case that it's a citizen who is angry at being stopped and is giving the police officer a lot of grief," McDevitt said.

He said videotape is an invaluable tool when it comes to dealing with drunken drivers. "One thing that is really compelling testimony is that they videotape all your DUI tests."

And of course video can help investigators solve crimes. Matteson pointed to the July 9 slayings of Byrd and Melanie Billings, a wealthy Florida Panhandle couple with 17 children, 13 of them adopted. Because many of the adopted kids have special needs, the couple had set up an elaborate security system to help keep track of them. Police said security video recorded the attackers entering the house and provided investigators with clues that resulted in the arrests of several suspects.
When private security systems aren't available, investigators often ask local businesses for help. "Police are going to the business that might have a camera that might have caught something," McDevitt said.

U.S. cities lack the number of surveillance cameras that are rampant in many foreign cities, such as London. Although privacy advocates "worry about the Big Brother effect," McDevitt said, ever-watchful cameras are increasingly becoming a fact of American life.

"It’s going to be part of our life," he said. "It’s going to grow. Now we have to use it correctly."