Another cop thought
So, earlier I suggested that we should have live streaming video cameras on all cops. That appears to be being implemented. Now I suggest we take it further.
Cop guns should be extremely smart, armed with video recognition and a fair host of complex software, and should refuse to shoot to kill without authorization from a operator who is not at the scene of the crime, but rather is sitting watching from dispatch.
Think about it. At the scene, often emotions are running rather high. Most of the time that cops shoot a innocent, I suspect that it’s a case of the emotions of the cops are making them incapable of making good decisions. Someone sitting and watching the show from elsewhere would likely have a much better evaluation of whether the cops were actually in any danger.
I am actually suggesting that the guns be smart enough to refuse to fire if the cop is aiming for a kill shot rather than a disabling shot unless either the onboard computer (via video recog realizing the target has a weapon drawn) or the dispatcher (away from the scene and not as involved emotionally) has enabled that functionality. I would also suggest we consider similar limitations for tasers to avoid cops abusing them – while tasers are not generally lethal they still can be abused in a number of ways.
I think we as a society need to be thinking about ways to end “the thin blue line”. It’s not moral, correct, or something we want in our worlds for our guardians to abuse their power whenever they want, secure in the impunity that nothing bad will happen to them because they are the cops and therefore are above the law.
January 2nd, 2015 at 6:53 am
I sometimes think what this will save us from the most is the cop who is good 99% of the time and has a bad day. I would think police who understood what I was proposing would understand and agree, but I don’t know, since I’ve never been a cop.
I know that the majority of police I have met on Earth are good and true guardians.. but that given the nature of neural networks, the *idea* of bad police is inherently dangerous.. because the bad cop might be a few million neurons.. a small portion of your mind.. that happened to get a connection to your concious experience at the wrong time.