PBS高端访谈:人体摄像机将成为警察制服的一部分

 　　JUDY WOODRUFF: In the aftermath of the police shooting in Ferguson, Missouri, and the chokehold death of a man in New York City, civil rights groups and even the president have called for an increase in the use of body cameras by police departments.

　　Hari Sreenivasan takes us to one town where they recently began using them.

　　DANIELLE TORRES, Evesham Township Police Department: It's green. I'm ready to go out on a shift. I pick it up. I put it on. I flick¹ it so that it's like that. Once it turns green, then it's ready for me to start recording².

　　HARI SREENIVASAN: For the last five months, police officer Danielle Torres has been wearing a small body camera when she's out policing the streets of Evesham, New Jersey³, a commuter⁴ town just 20 miles southeast of Philadelphia.

　　DANIELLE TORRES: The body camera sees everything from me out, almost as if it's my eyes, whereas in-car cameras only see a stationary⁵ view of what's in front of my patrol car.

　　HARI SREENIVASAN: Her department is one of dozens across the country that have adopted this surveillance equipment.

　　And Chief Christopher Chew, who himself wears one, says his officers have all embraced the new policing tool.

　　CHRISTOPHER CHEW, Evesham Township Police Department: They see the benefits, not only short term, but long term, because it's there to protect them. It's there not only to protect against the frivolous⁶ lawsuits⁷ or complaints, but also it's capturing what they're doing, because they're doing great work each and every day.

　　And now they have the ability to capture it, go to court and show that they were doing the right thing. Our officers, they want everything recorded and audio to protect them.

　　HARI SREENIVASAN: The equipment is expensive. Cameras can cost up to $1,000 a piece, with data storage costs far exceeding that.

　　Earlier this month, President Obama asked that $75 million be spent to purchase such cameras for departments all across the country.

　　PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: I'm going to be proposing some new community policing initiatives that will significantly expand funding and training for local law enforcement, including up to 50,000 additional body-worn cameras for law enforcement agencies.

　　HARI SREENIVASAN: The move comes in the wake of the shooting death of Michael Brown by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, last August, an incident that wasn't captured on video.

　　DAVID HARRIS, Professor, University of Pittsburgh School of Law: As soon as that event happened, the immediate⁸ reaction was, where's the video? How come they don't have video?

　　HARI SREENIVASAN: David Harris is a professor at the University of Pittsburgh Law School. He predicts body cameras will soon be widely used by departments everywhere.

　　DAVID HARRIS: Police need to take this on, on their own terms, to have their own ways of looking at this. They have to put these on police officers. The public will be served because there can be greater accountability, there can be a much better, more nuanced record.

　　And the police, I think, have begun to realize, just like they did years ago with dash-cams, that their interests will be served as well.

　　HARI SREENIVASAN: Still, even Harris concedes that body cameras don't necessarily mean police will be held more accountable.

　　ERIC GARNER⁹: I was minding by business, officer.

　　HARI SREENIVASAN: Earlier this month, a New York City grand jury decided¹⁰ not to indict¹¹ an officer in the chokehold death of Eric Garner, in spite of the fact that the incident was videotaped by bystanders.

　　DAVID HARRIS: We know that, even if you see it on camera, there can still be biases¹². You don't have more than one camera angle, or the particular one you have only shows one part of the action, or you have situations in which there has been editing.

　　HARI SREENIVASAN: Jay Stanley, a policy analyst¹³ with the American Civil Liberties Union, agrees the jury is still out on the effectiveness of these cameras. His organization has given qualified¹⁴ support of their use if strict, consistent privacy policies are adopted.

　　JAY STANLEY, American Civil Liberties Union: There need to be very good policies to ensure that video footage that police take — and a large proportion of calls are domestic violence. Police are entering people's homes. They're seeing people at the worst moments of their lives — is not going to end up on YouTube or be passed around among police officers for laughs or what have you.

　　So there need to be very, very tight controls over the video data that is collected, who has access to it, how long it is retained, what it is used for.

　　HARI SREENIVASAN: And Stanley says officers cannot be allowed to alter the footage.

　　JAY STANLEY: The crucial thing is that police officers not be able to edit on the fly by turning the cameras off and on at will, or if they get involved in a dubious¹⁵ incident, finding a way to make sure that the footage disappear, all of which we have seen happen around the country.

　　HARI SREENIVASAN: Although body cam rules vary widely from city to city, the Evesham Police Department says it has taken precautions against those abuses. The cameras are recording all the time, although footage is only saved starting 30 seconds prior to an officer hitting the button. That footage is then automatically uploaded to the cloud at the end of every shift. And a digital record is kept of anyone who tries to access it.

　　DANIELLE TORRES: After a shift, you take the camera off, turn it off, and put it right in one of these ports as you see the other ones. And it will go through the process of downloading all the videos on the cloud.

　　HARI SREENIVASAN: So, that means you can't edit the video, you can't delete the video?

　　DANIELLE TORRES: Not at all.

　　HARI SREENIVASAN: Advocates of the cameras say widespread use could lead to better behavior by everyone involved. They point to several studies.

　　The Rialto, California, Police Department found there was a 59 percent reduction in the use of force by officers and an 88 percent reduction in complaints after body cameras were used.

　　And in a controlled study in Mesa, Arizona, where only half the force was given cameras, there were three times more complaints lodged¹⁶ against officers without cameras than officers who wore them.

　　So, how do you expect body cameras to change how an officer behaves?

　　CHRISTOPHER CHEW: Well, the officer now knows that everything they do when they have a contact with a citizen is now audio- and video-recorded. It puts them on another level. They now know that we have the ability as an organization to go back with checks and balances to ensure that they're following proper protocols¹⁷.

　　HARI SREENIVASAN: Does it change the behavior of citizens once they know they're on camera by the police?

　　CHRISTOPHER CHEW: I would say, naturally, it would.

　　HARI SREENIVASAN: If authorized¹⁸ by Congress, the federal money for new body cameras would nearly double the number of cameras that are currently in use.

1 flick   

n.快速的轻打，轻打声，弹开；v.轻弹，轻轻拂去，忽然摇动

参考例句：

• He gave a flick of the whip.他轻抽一下鞭子。
• By a flick of his whip,he drove the fly from the horse's head.他用鞭子轻抽了一下，将马头上的苍蝇驱走。

2 recording   

n.录音，记录

参考例句：

• How long will the recording of the song take?录下这首歌得花多少时间？
• I want to play you a recording of the rehearsal.我想给你放一下彩排的录像。

3 jersey   

n.运动衫

参考例句：

• He wears a cotton jersey when he plays football.他穿运动衫踢足球。
• They were dressed alike in blue jersey and knickers.他们穿着一致，都是蓝色的运动衫和灯笼短裤。

4 commuter   

n.(尤指市郊之间)乘公交车辆上下班者

参考例句：

• Police cordoned off the road and diverted commuter traffic. 警察封锁了道路并分流交通。
• She accidentally stepped on his foot on a crowded commuter train. 她在拥挤的通勤列车上不小心踩到了他的脚。

5 stationary   

adj.固定的，静止不动的

参考例句：

• A stationary object is easy to be aimed at.一个静止不动的物体是容易瞄准的。
• Wait until the bus is stationary before you get off.你要等公共汽车停稳了再下车。

6 frivolous   

adj.轻薄的；轻率的

参考例句：

• This is a frivolous way of attacking the problem.这是一种轻率敷衍的处理问题的方式。
• He spent a lot of his money on frivolous things.他在一些无聊的事上花了好多钱。

7 lawsuits   

n.诉讼( lawsuit的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Lawsuits involving property rights and farming and grazing rights increased markedly. 涉及财产权，耕作与放牧权的诉讼案件显著地增加。 来自辞典例句
• I've lost and won more lawsuits than any man in England. 全英国的人算我官司打得最多，赢的也多，输的也多。 来自辞典例句

8 immediate   

adj.立即的；直接的，最接近的；紧靠的

参考例句：

• His immediate neighbours felt it their duty to call.他的近邻认为他们有责任去拜访。
• We declared ourselves for the immediate convocation of the meeting.我们主张立即召开这个会议。

9 garner   

v.收藏；取得

参考例句：

• He has garnered extensive support for his proposals.他的提议得到了广泛的支持。
• Squirrels garner nuts for the winter.松鼠为过冬储存松果。

10 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

11 indict   

v.起诉，控告，指控

参考例句：

• You can't indict whole people for the crudeness of a few.您不能因少数人的粗暴行为就控诉整个民族。
• I can indict you for abducting high school student.我可以告你诱拐中学生。

12 biases   

偏见( bias的名词复数 )； 偏爱； 特殊能力； 斜纹

参考例句：

• Stereotypes represent designer or researcher biases and assumptions, rather than factual data. 它代表设计师或者研究者的偏见和假设，而不是实际的数据。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓
• The net effect of biases on international comparisons is easily summarized. 偏差对国际比较的基本影响容易概括。

13 analyst   

n.分析家，化验员；心理分析学家

参考例句：

• What can you contribute to the position of a market analyst?你有什么技能可有助于市场分析员的职务？
• The analyst is required to interpolate values between standards.分析人员需要在这些标准中插入一些值。

14 qualified   

adj.合格的，有资格的，胜任的，有限制的

参考例句：

• He is qualified as a complete man of letters.他有资格当真正的文学家。
• We must note that we still lack qualified specialists.我们必须看到我们还缺乏有资质的专家。

15 dubious   

adj.怀疑的，无把握的；有问题的，靠不住的

参考例句：

• What he said yesterday was dubious.他昨天说的话很含糊。
• He uses some dubious shifts to get money.他用一些可疑的手段去赚钱。

16 lodged   

v.存放( lodge的过去式和过去分词 )；暂住；埋入；（权利、权威等）归属

参考例句：

• The certificate will have to be lodged at the registry. 证书必须存放在登记处。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• Our neighbours lodged a complaint against us with the police. 我们的邻居向警方控告我们。 来自《简明英汉词典》

17 protocols   

n.礼仪( protocol的名词复数 )；（外交条约的）草案；（数据传递的）协议；科学实验报告（或计划）

参考例句：

• There are also protocols on the testing of nuclear weapons. 也有关于核武器试验的协议。 来自辞典例句
• Hardware components and software design of network transport protocols are separately introduced. 介绍系统硬件组成及网络传输协议的软件设计。 来自互联网

18 authorized   

a.委任的，许可的

参考例句：

• An administrative order is valid if authorized by a statute.如果一个行政命令得到一个法规的认可那么这个命令就是有效的。