Here is an inescapable conclusion: police officers in New York City need to be monitored more closely. So do police officers everywhere else. Were it up to me, the cops of America would have a dashboard camera on every cruiser, a digital audio recorder in every pocket, a camcorder running during every interrogation, and secret internal affairs officers operating in every precinct. The exoneration of wrongfully accused police officers would please me as much as the bad cops who were punished for breaking the law or acting unprofessionally. I'd also pass a federal law permitting United States citizens to record the activity of on duty cops without fear of being prosecuted (nope, you don't necessarily have that right already, depending on where you live). Reason magazine's Radley Balko wrote a great how-to guide on the subject here.
Makes perfect sense to me. The only thing I would add would be that not only must citizens be protected by the law when they record police, but they MUST record them! The only way the abuse of authority can be countered is by proper, civil vigilance.
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