Body cams too fragile for Canadian Mounties – so they won't be used The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) says it will not be equipping its officers with body cameras after the units were found to be not rugged enough for field use. The Mounties say that a three-year trial run of the body-worn camera (BWC) gear has concluded and will not be adopted because the units have neither the battery …
they could produce a rugged camera that does not have shit for software inside. I got a free GoPro 3+ Black Edition and after the second software update I could not keep a battery in the camera while it was off as it just ate up all the juice. Great, so now I have to plan ahead and forego any type of current time keeping in the device, since I will not run their app anymore. Why? They "updated" their iOS app, to thunderous dismay, the crapware needs you to login to the mothership so as to be functional. Fucking garbage on a stick.
Here's a new tagline for them:
GoPro! We used to make a good camera, then our marketing department took over and now we suck.
Also, forget about our drone. That was a mistake. Just, just look away. For Dog's sake, LOOK AWAY!
that is a sad sad story. I feel sick.
I cant stand it when you pay for some hardware , and the software turns useful hardware into shit.
e.g. most satnav apps - why do I have to have data switched on and pissing away at great cost , while using satnav?? (assuming the device has a proper gps)
e.g. early digital Cameras - all they had to do was put standard USB mass storage device driver in it, so photos could be retrieved by a drive letter . but no . They made it difficult beyond belief by knocking up the shittest software ever that had all fancy ideas about tags and libries, but ultimately made the most basic and essential task impossible - transfering a JPG from A to B.
e.g the last freeview digibox i had - it had all the hardware, 2 tuners etc, but if you wanted to "rewind live tv" as the marketeers put it - you had to have thought earlier you might want to do that and pressed pause briefly to start the buffer running - it dosent do that by default when you change channel like every other box.
e.g. early digital Cameras - all they had to do was put standard USB mass storage device driver in it, so photos could be retrieved by a drive letter . but no . They made it difficult beyond belief by knocking up the shittest software ever that had all fancy ideas about tags and libries, but ultimately made the most basic and essential task impossible - transfering a JPG from A to B.
@ V.Jeltz
Have you tried using a USB connection and your computer's file manager to grab photos off your camera? I have three digital cameras: Pentax K100, Pentax Optio WG1 and a Panasonic TZ 70. All connect to my computers via a USB cable and let me use the file manager to drag and drop photos from the camera to my hard drive. No stupid apps needed, not even to empty the SD cards in the Pentaxes (the TZ70 insists on emptying its own image store). Come to think of it, this has worked with every camera I've ever tried it on.
Alternatively, I just take the SD card out of the camera, put it in a card reader and use the file manager to move photos on and off it. I'm running Fedora Linux, but this should work with every OS whose file manager access a flash card in a reader.
BTW, I agree with your comments about GPS apps, but why not write your own app? I bet one that didn't broadcast your whereabouts while draining the battery would be an instant hit.
RCMP aren't unique. They just seem to have a procurement department that cares that the product works.
Body worn cams fail all the time. Most forces live with it, the project leads gets a promotion and someone else deals with the consequences. El Reg commentards, of course, call it a big conspiracy to cover up widescale abuses.
The question is whether the it's known the cam has failed in the field. If it's discovered after the end of the shift it doesn't matter as it will have a substantial placebo effect on both the cop wearing it and the people interacting with said cop. On the other hand if it's visibly broken or flashing a "not working" signal then it's an open invitation for abuse.
Good point. I reviewed the stats on a British Police force's experience of body cams as an an independent analyst (it had 'problems with violence - on both sides of the truncheon) and it was clear that a visible body cam (aka asking light improved courtesy on both sides , reduce violence and false claims. We were allowed o run some experiment with small number of cameras without the 'awareness light - as well informing the officers involved that the cameras would not be on most of the time. Good and convincing results.
They don't need their own cameras, if they are arresting someone and a bystander happens to film it they simply arrest the bystander and seize their phone as evidence
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/woman-files-complaint-against-whistler-rcmp-over-cellphone-seizure-1.3882355
I can see the battery life criteria, but durability?
Going by the basic fact that they're horse-mounted police, I'm confused, as eventers use helmet or other mounted cameras regularly and what they drag the cameras through would surely match any durability requirement? OK, maybe Canadian winters, but I've used cameras in the Antarctic and they survive and work.
Times change.
The days described by Sat-Okh in his biographical books are long gone. Most mounties are not riding horses. They are no longer persecuting Indians for a living either.
They still, however, operate in conditions which a lot of USA police never sees. 30C+ in summer in Saskatchewan to -30C in winter. Very few mass produced body cameras are reliable in these conditions.
They've obviously not been trialing the right model of cam. There are plenty of ruggedised, hard wearing, decent battery life cameras out there. You just need to avoid the bells and whistles of cloud storage and opt for the good old docking station back at the office with a large HD for backup.
"They've obviously not been trialing the right model of cam. There are plenty of ruggedised, hard wearing, decent battery life cameras out there."
Where, exactly? There are plenty of cameras around that might just barely manage an 8 hour day with fully charged, brand new batteries, and there are plenty that can stand up to a bit of knocking about on the odd weekend. But needing to work all day, every day for years under all conditions including extremes of weather, physical altercations, being shot at and attacked by bears, is an entirely different proposition.
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