Candid Camera Cops: recording law enforcement.

• Author: Mangu-Ward, Katherine
• Position: Citings - Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Police Department - Brief article

ON OCTOBER 1, a group of 165 volunteers from Washington, D.C.'s Metropolitan Police Department hit the streets wearing body cameras for the first time. The $1 million pilot program will test various configurations of recording devices over the next six months, including cameras mounted on glasses, clipped to the chest, even one perched on the shoulder like a parrot. Officers will be instructed to roll tape at all times, except in "sensitive areas" such as restrooms.

On September 24, when the program was announced at a press conference, Police Chief Cathy Lanier joked that "it's very rare that we're not being videotaped somewhere by somebody anyway. I mean, we're the last people to get cameras, right?" Lanier said she had also instructed officers not to interfere when members of the public choose to make their own recordings.

In an unlikely moment of harmony...