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After us, the Seattle Police Department then started issuing body cams to their officers, and as time went on more and more
police departments in the region also started recording their police events. One of the consequences of all this was one guy
living in his parent’s basement figured he could maybe get rich by capitalizing on this. He started submitting public records
requests for the recordings of the videos. Not specific ones, but all he could get. Because law enforcement agencies are publicly
funded, the recordings were just like police reports; they could be (and had to be) subject to public disclosure. So this one guy
would collect literally hundreds of hours’ or recordings, and he’d upload them all en masse to YouTube. He never had the time
to watch them all, he just put them out there and waited to see if any of them went viral if they captured a cop beating or tasering
somebody. With enough views on youtube, he could make some coin. So his motive was strictly selfish; he was not trying to
expose bad cops or challenge policies or promote reform; he just wanted to get money from posting videos that might get
popular.
When he came after us we discovered that these public disclosure requests were quite problematic; every video released had to
be previewed first by a supervisor, to ensure the video being released to the public is cleared first. If several officers recorded a
response to a domestic violence call, for example, some of the people in the video might need their faces blurred out before it
can be released. Or if names are mentioned and it is a sensitive case that should not be made public, some audio might need to
be bleeped over. So watching and redacting video clips suddenly became very time and labor intensive. And since only the
supervisors had authority to review all the videos, it took them away from the other things they had to be doing. And the poor
sergeants had to watch the video and listen to the audio very closely, because it would be bad if two officers mentioned a different
case or names or other information that had nothing to do at all with the actual recording.

It got so problematic that the police chiefs and camera manufacturers lobbied the state lawmakers to change some laws. It
eventually worked; in Washington state the laws were amended so that random citizens could only ask for certain police reports
instead of just “anything and everything” recorded. That took time, though. So our Chief had to meet with the guy who wanted
every recording ever made from us and tried to negotiate something. During one of their meetings the guy mentioned that a lot
of videos were getting uploaded but then rejected by YouTube for copyright violations; apparently when an officer did a traffic
stop, if his car’s FM radio was playing any music that the bodycam recorded, YouTube would block the whole video. So as soon
as we realized that, some officers (ahem) started to be sure to turn on the FM radio in our cars for even just a few seconds of our
recordings; the more popular the song, the quicker YouTube would be able to recognize it and deny posting and keep our traffic
stops off YouTube.
Other growing pains included developing rules and protocols about when the cameras should be activated and when they should
be turned off. We learned the hard way – by getting excoriated in the press – that when an officer turns off a camera to have a
private conversation with another officer in the middle of an investigation, it can look really bad. Axon/Taser saw that too and
added “mute” button on their next generation of bodycams, so the video recording could continue uninterrupted but with the
sensitive audio not recorded.

As more and more cops started wearing body cameras across the country, and as more and more citizens started recording the
police using their own cell phones, a disturbing new trend developed; that of the “Questionable Police Shooting.” There were
numerous examples that made national news, and for more than a few years police officers as a general whole sustained a lot of
criticism from vocal critics including activist groups and citizens everywhere. See: “Black Lives Matter”
Cops shooting people for no good (legal) reason had of course been going on for a very long time, but now it was starting to
become really public and widespread. I can’t defend the indefensible or excuse the inexcusable actions of bad cops, but it made
policing a lot harder for most officers because we were getting a LOT of flak from the media and from upset citizens for the
actions of bad cops in completely different parts of the country.

Now whenever I met an old retired cop, one who had worked the streets in the late 60’s and 70’s, I had a deep respect for them.
Those guys, especially the ones who worked in bigger cities, really worked for their
money. A lot of them had to deal with racial inequality and unrest and riots and
high levels of mistrust from the public. And I used to think I had it easy compared
to them. But around 2015 or so, it was not really a great popular thing to be a cop in
this country. And one of the ways I can prove that is that nationwide, the number
of people who wanted to join police departments dropped considerably; literally just
less and less men and women wanted to become cops. And we all knew why; that
was no secret. The downsides and cons (the danger, the shift work, the rules and
regulations) really outweighed a lot of the positive aspects.( See also “Ferguson,
MO.”)