Chicago Police Made Nearly 200,000 Secret Traffic Stops Last Year - Why?

[msc545]

https://mailchi.mp/boltsmag/newsletter-17851028?e=42f5c0f1c2

I think they are not recording these stops because they are extorting money bribes from drivers - after all, this IS Chicago and it has a long reputation for police corruption.

[exitseven]

Years ago a moving violation was a ten dollar fine. It was used as a deterrent for bad driving. Now the fines are much higher and in a lot of states a moving violation also entails a big increase in your insurance.

A lot of states use traffic tickets as a big source of revenue. Tickets can be hundreds of dollars. It is unclear in the article if the city still gets the fine the driver pays or does the driver bribe the cop if he will broom the ticket. It looks like there needs to be a change in how traffic stops are handled that will prevent corruption. I do not know if the Chicago cops wear bodycams but that might be a place to start.

[msc545]

You may not know this but a lot of cops wear body cams because they are ordered. Oddly enough, the The camera is automatically stopped recording video and audio when something illegal is going on. This is why you see very few recordings of bad shootings by cops. The few that you have seen were apparently recorded by defective cameras that kept on rolling and defective recorders it kept on recording.

[exitseven]

How does the camera know when something illegal is going on? If this is the case than why bother to make them wear a body cam in the first place?

[msc545]

Well, the camera doesn't really know. To be quite honest. It seems that the cops turn them off or never start them in the first place. Now. Of course, I don't know for sure that it's the cop himself as it might just be a bystander that does it when the cop isn't paying attention. But that seems a little far-fetched but not impossible. More likely there is a gremlin wandering around or perhaps an angel or a devil that is responsible for turning the camera off without the cop. Knowing of course. The other explanation is that the car himself or herself turns the camera off because possibly they might be doing something a little sketchy and would be embarrassed if anyone saw it even though they might not really get in trouble. You never know.

[msc545]

The people that make the cops wear these body cameras are actually their superiors in the police department who don't really believe that the cops need to worry about body cams but do it only to satisfy the public. The public tends to get upset when the police beat the crap out of innocent people or shoot them. The public is under the false impression that just because there is a video tape, the cop is more likely to get convicted in a court or even refrain from shooting or beating on people. What we've seen is that that is not exactly the case, but just the presence or existence of a possible body camera tends to make the public shut up about police brutality. So you see the camera is just an instrument of public relations and it doesn't really have to work.

[Staximus]

Chicago has had the most corrupt police and politicians since the early 1900's at least. Al Capone became one of the richest men in the world in Chicago. That took massive corruption of the police and politicians to make it happen. The feds had to come in to stop it. Things change but they don't change that much.

[msc545]

@Staximus you are completely right about this. Chicago has a long and proud tradition of absolute corruption ranging back literally several hundred years from the time of its inception. The police are heavily involved in this and always have been. There is no such thing as the rule of law in Chicago when it comes to bribes and corruption. So this is just another example of that practice.

[DrPepper12]

Cops are to be as trusted as much as Clarence Thomas is to report his "gifts" and abide by recusal guidance.

[Drewtate]

If they are secret how do you know?

I think any police officer on duty should have their body cam on the whole shift.

[msc545]

That has been tried in Los Angles, but those cameras mysteriously seem to turn themselves off during "critical incidents".

[Drewtate]

Accused should walk if one or more cop's body cam stops working for that incident. Should be dismissed for lack of evidence or treated as tampering with evidence.

[msc545]

Read the article at the link I provided.

[beefcakebradybatson]

Going back to Al Capone, who ran Chicago during the Roaring Twenties.

[Iron_Man]

Because they want to bring money into the city