I hatched this idea in light of the situation in Ferguson Missouri a while back. If the police vehicle that Darren Wilson was driving had a dash cam installed, the police could have released the tape and decided whether to press charges immediately, likely preventing the unrest we are seeing right now.
Even though, billions are spent on weapons, computers, communications, and training, it's amazing how many police vehicles don't have dash cams. People have suggested that officers wear helmet cams all of the time but those are too easy to be tampered with/shut off. Even the dash cams that are installed in cars produce terrible quality images and constantly "malfunction" (meaning get shut off or covered by the officers before stops).
This idea prevents that. I will break it into five sections here.
- The device:
The device will contain a forward facing camera(360 degree, multiplexing 4 view, and sound could be optional upgrades), a 4g card, and an interface that triggers recording and streaming when the police vehicle's overhead lights are turned on. The electronics will be solid potted into a device smaller than a baseball that will mount the same way a rear view mirror does. It will have three wires, power, ground, and record/stream trigger.
To avoid tampering, there will be no external controls, sd cards, or usb ports on these cameras. They will save video to an internal memory that can only be accessed through the 4g connection with a special website that's given to each governor. When the governor accesses this video, it is immediately streamed to the main site and recorded there, to prevent coverups. This is for backup in case 4g connection is not available and can not be accessed by the officer or department.
When the officer initiates a stop, the camera will begin recording and the video will be streamed and recorded to a website. Users of the website will be notified that a stop is taking place and have the option to become remote eye witnesses.
- The phone apps:
In order to draw traffic to the site, two phone apps will be offered. The free one will connect start recording with the phone's camera but will put a randomly generated # of viewers readout at the bottom of the screen. This number will randomly shift up and down just like the number of viewers of a real live stream would. The people could use the free app to trick people that are hassling them into thinking that their actions are being streamed live.
The paid app will look exactly like the free one but will actually upload to the website, triggering a situation warning so website users can become witness and even intervene by phoning authorities if necessary. Cams will transmit their location and phones with the app will to if location services are turned on. I'm thinking the cost of the app could be $5 a month or so, payable with bitcoin, steem, or other cryptos. I do not want to draw any business to banks if it can be avoided.
- The website:
At the top of the screen there will be links for the two apps.
Right below that, there will be a horizontal linear grid where the Police vehicle videos show up. Site users will hear a tone and see an alert whenever a new stream pops up. There will be left/right arrows allowing the users to scroll through the feeds. Each feed can be clicked on and enlarged and commented on separately from the central forum. The meid's/esn's of the dash cams will be in a database, tied to the vehicle number and department so supervisors can be called if an officer gets out of line. Each video will have two sets of thumbs up/thumbs down buttons like youtube where users of the site can rate the cop's behavior and rate the behavior of the "suspect".
Below that, there will a general comment section/forum horizontally in the middle of the screen for general commenting and for users to point out hot feeds.
Below the forums, the videos from customers phones and dash cams that they purchase will be uploaded, having the same features of the cop section.
- The funding structure:
In the beginning, in order to bring down the price of the dash cams through mass production, and help develop software, I'd like to start a crowdfunding campaign on coinfunder.com or bitstarter.com. Once the product is refined, a non profit will be set up to build and distribute the dash cams.
Initial estimates show that building and refining the prototype dash cam should be able to be done for less than $200usd by using readily available open source parts. In a larger economy of scale, production units could be produced for as little as $50 each, maybe less. I have no idea what it will take to develop the camera trigger interface, the apps, and the website but that's why this is in open source project. The rewards for the crowdfunding campaign can start at stickers, mugs, (non disposable stuff) and go up to discounted prepaid streaming app service, then to finished dash cams at a less than retail price.
The main excuse for departments not installing cameras in their cars is funding, even though we all know that's never the real reason they don't want them. With the amounts of lawsuits and the costs of riot control that dash cams could prevent, departments could save millions per year by installing them. Of course, we all know that the funding excuse is baloney but we can shoot that argument right down.
I've installed dash cams in cop cars before and it takes about 30 minutes, yet the departments claim that it costs between $1500-$3000 to outfit vehicles with them. This is baloney too but if the departments are provided with the cams for free, they can't turn them down without looking like they just want to get away with being thugs.
Installation can be done by qualified and interested members of each community, on a volunteer or reduced cost basis. It will take about five minutes for the mirror bracket glue to set, one wire goes to power, one goes to ground, and one goes to the overhead light switch. Installation should take no more than 30 minutes and requires less skill than installing a radio. This should cost no more than $45/vehicle at full shop rates of $90/hour.
The sales of the app and dash cams to the public will fund the cost of maintaining/upgrading the site, the dash cams and install costs for the law enforcement vehicles, and incentives.
Incentive structure:
As if always having a video and a witness to every iffy encounter isn't incentive enough, I've thought of a few ways to give back to the people monitoring the site, good hearted citizens, and the upstanding law enforcement officers.
When users vote on the videos, the votes get tallied once a month. The votes work like reddit votes, down votes cancel up votes and vice versa. We could even implement "vote fudging" like reddit does to discourage mob mentality. The overall ratio would stay the same buy the displayed number of votes may not be the actual numbers. There's a great explanation for the logic behind this on reddit.com somewhere.
Funds from app and cam sales that are in excess of the operating costs each month will be divided in half. One half will go to funding the install of more cams in LE vehicles. The other half will be divided into thirds and offered as incentives to the three groups of people necessary to make this network function.
Law Enforcement Officers that get the highest number of positive votes will get a bitcoin, or "best" crypto at the time, reward (again, boycotting crooked banks). If there is a tie, they split the reward equally.
People that log on and monitor the site will get an incentive based upon the amount of time they are active. Log on sessions will time out after a minute if there are no clicks or activity from the person on the site. People wishing to accrue hours towards the incentive will need to have the site up and be scrolling through cams and commenting for the time to be counted. If they get bumped for inactivity more than three times in any 15 minute time span, they will be prevented from logging back in for a few hours, thus discouraging people keeping the site open in the a background tab and switching back and forth just for the incentive.
Comments can also get up/down voted just like reddit and reported if users are ignorant or abusive. At the end of each month, the total hours observing will be tallied and the incentive will go to the one with the most hours. Again, in the event of a tie, the incentive will be split evenly.
The last incentive will be for the customers that bought the app or dash cam for their own cars. They will be voted up/down based upon their attitude and interaction with the LEO. The one with the most votes wins, same circumstances as above if there's a tie. Even split between the winners.
Abuse policy:
Abuse of this, ie, streaming videos for no reason, being a jerk on the forum, etc., will be handled by down votes. If a user is down voted a certain number of times, their streaming privileges will be suspended for a three days. After they've been suspended three times, their streaming privileges will be revoked and they'll have the option to return the functional, non damaged dash cam for a partial refund.
Conclusion:
If we can collaborate and make this possible, the people and law enforcement will both be protected from lies and accusations of brutality, violence, or resisting arrest. The system can also be used by the app and cam customers in any situation where they feel they need a witness. The system will offer incentives for both Law Enforcement and the People, hopefully enticing them to always be on their best behavior, and to use their cams, apps, and the website whenever appropriate.
If we can collaborate and build this network, police brutality will be largely eliminated very quickly!
What do you think some good names for the website would be?
Get in touch if you'd like to volunteer to help develop hardware, software, or the website, do marketing for the project, or if you'd be interested in installing cams for the law enforcement departments in your area!
Any collaborative, positive input will be greatly appreciated!