With legislation pending in Springfield that would require videotaping of police interrogations, some law enforcement officers are concerned that their credibility is under siege (Page 1, March 1).
Unfortunately, many people do mistrust the police. In Chicago, there is ample evidence that police brutality goes well beyond the high-profile cases. Many citizens of Chicago are more afraid of the police than they are of street crime.
Last October, Amnesty International conducted hearings on police brutality in Chicago. Community activists, legal experts and ordinary citizens told of numerous incidents of police misconduct in the city, including beatings of suspects while handcuffed in custody, unprovoked killings of unarmed civilians, physical abuse and harassment during routine traffic stops and intimidation of individuals who have filed complaints with the Office of Professional Standards.
Critics argue that videotaping of interrogations would interfere with good police work. Then why has it become increasingly common?
More than a third of U.S. police and sheriff’s departments videotape interrogations, including big-city police departments in New York, Houston, San Diego and Denver. The states of Alaska and Minnesota also have this requirement. They have found that videotaping the entire interrogation process–not just confessions–protects the integrity of the many police officers who are doing their job properly and acts as a deterrent to those who might wish to inappropriately coerce confessions.
