Scrutiny on cops from videos

From all of these events coming into the media, such scrutiny appears to be needed. [Link]

Some departments have sought training for officers to prepare them for increased surveillance of police activity.

"All of our people should be conducting themselves like they are being recorded all the time," says Lt. Robin Larson, who oversees training for the 3,200-officer Broward County, Fla., Sheriff's Office, which once hired Kamau to help prepare new cadets by making them aware their actions could be taped and transmitted.

Some police believe videotaping officers poses broad risks that reach beyond Internet embarrassments: It could cause officers to hesitate in life-threatening situations.

"The proliferation of cheap video equipment is presenting a whole new dynamic for law enforcement," says Jim Pasco, executive director of the Fraternal Order of Police, the nation's largest police union. "It has had a chilling effect on some officers who are now afraid to act for fear of retribution by video. This has become a serious safety issue. I'm afraid something terrible will happen."

A chilling effect on police abusing their authority does not seem like a bad thing. But video can also help explain what happened.

Defense attorney Rains concedes the raw video initially had a "shocking effect" on jurors.

"I tried to prepare them for it," he says. "I guess you don't get oblivious to seeing something like that."

What did help Mehserle's case, Rains says, is that more than one video showed what happened that morning; six were introduced at trial. Taken together, Rains argued, the videos captured several angles and supported his client's claim that he meant to draw a stun gun but mistakenly pulled his .40-caliber handgun.

Rains says his client's hand movements recorded on some of the videos were consistent with attempts to open the snap of the holster of his stun gun.

"His body was doing things as if to draw and fire the Taser, not the gun," Rains says.

More video, Rains says, shows Mehserle's "compelling" reaction after the shooting.

"The video shows him throwing his hands to his head in shock," Rains says. "It was a terrible thing to happen. It was a tragedy it did." But the attorney says he was "very, very happy to have this video."

Although Burris does not agree with the jury's apparent interpretation of the videos (jurors have not spoken publicly about their decision), he also is happy they exist.

"Without the videos, there would have been no prosecution," he says. "It meant everything."