San Francisco Fire Chief Bans Helmet-Mounted Cameras For Firefighters

New submitter niftymitch sends this quote from an article at SFGate: "San Francisco's fire chief has explicitly banned firefighters from using helmet-mounted video cameras after images from a battalion chief's Asiana Airlines crash recording became public and led to questions about first responders' actions leading up to a fire rig running over a survivor. ... Filming the scene may have violated both firefighters' and victims' privacy, Hayes-White said, trumping whatever benefit came from knowing what the footage shows. 'There comes a time that privacy of the individual is paramount, of greater importance than having a video,' Hayes-White said. Critics, including some within the department, questioned the chief's order and its timing — coming as Johnson's footage raised the possibility of Fire Department liability in the death of 16-year-old Ye Meng Yuan. .. [Battalion Chief Kevin Smith, president of the employee group that includes Johnson, said,] 'The department seems more concerned with exposure and liability than training and improving efficiency. Helmet cams are the wave of the future - they can be used to improve communication at incidents between firefighters and commanders.'"

Comments

Interpretation of the law for beginners

[sl4shd0rk]

laws for government:
smashed your hard drives?
We protected public from chinese data theft!

cell phone stolen by cops while recording cops?
We need it for evidence!

no manslaughter charges for fire chief throttle spaz?
We need to protect your privacy and ours!

laws for citizens
intentionally smashed someones hard drives?
felony assault/reckless endangerment

stolen cell phone left at bar (Apple/Engadget fiasco)?
theft of lost property.

ran over someone at accident scene?
vehicular manslaughter
     

Re:I get to bust this one out again.

[garcia]

I have repeatedly requested camera views from publicly owned but privately operated buses in the southern suburbs of the Minneapolis/St Paul metro area.

These cameras exist both inside and outside of the buses but whenever an issue arises which negatively impact the bus drivers or the system itself, the camera feeds are unavailable, usually due to some sort of unknown malfunction: http://www.lazylightning.org/bus-2-0-directs-mvta-driver-onto-dirt-shoulder

However, when they are not at fault, the videos are available to me right away and without question: http://www.lazylightning.org/mvta-rider-alleges-racism-over-bus-incident