Ethics

Why the Police Must Be Videotaped

By Ed Brayton

Here's another case where a police officer lied about what happened and was found to be lying because they were videotaped:

The latest such case emerged on Monday, when a New York City detective, Debra Eager, 41, was indicted on three felony perjury charges after her testimony before a grand jury about a 2007 drug arrest "starkly contradicted" video surveillance of the event, according to Robert T. Johnson, the Bronx district attorney.

Detective Eager pleaded not guilty to the charges, said her lawyer, Peter E. Brill, who pointed out that she had 15 years' experience on the force and no disciplinary history. He explained the discrepancies between her testimony and the video as honest mistakes.

Full post as published by Dispatches from the Culture Wars on March 31, 2009 (boomark / email).