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

Re:Hah

[icebike]

Since when did government care about the right to privacy?

Exactly.

I think its probably time for the State Fire Marshal or other public safety official to step in and MANDATE the cameras on chief's helmets (at the very least) and essentially over-rule this guy before he starts a trend.

This is clearly ass-covering and nothing to do with privacy.