可穿戴相机有助美国警察执法（在线收听）

可穿戴相机有助美国警察执法

Houston Chief of Police Charles McClelland supports the use of body cameras, but he said they also present problems.

休斯顿警察局局长查尔斯·麦克兰德支持为警员配备可穿戴相机，但他表示这样做也会造成问题。

“The type of equipment, the placement of equipment, the downloading time, and storage space all of those are significant challenges.”

“设备种类、安置、下载时间、储存空间等等，所有这些都是难题。”

For the past two years, the Houston Police Department has experimented with cameras,deploying about 100 of them on officers each day.

过去2年来，休斯顿警局一直在尝试可穿戴相机，每天大约有100名警官使用。

But McClelland said deploying cameras on a few thousand officers and then managing all the video they produce will cost a lot of money.

但麦克兰德表示为几千名警官配备可穿戴相机后，管理他们拍摄的视频会花费一大笔钱。

“We will be paying officers overtime for doing their downloading and indexing of these videos,”

“我们要为警官们下载视频建立索引目录的工作支付加班费。”

And those those videos can only show a limited perspective of any incident.

而所有视频只能从有限的角度展现任何事件。

The body cameras used by police usually offer a wide-angle view of what is in front of the lens, much like the small consumer cameras.

“警员配备的摄像头以广角展现镜头前的事物，更像这些小巧的普通相机。”

Chief McClelland said that view leaves a lot out.

麦克兰德局长称这样的角度无法在镜头前展现很多东西。

“An officer may turn his or her head and see something,but the video camera that is in the middle of their chest is pointing straight ahead.”

“一位警官可能转头去看别的地方，但他们胸前的摄像头是永远朝前的。”

Most officers who have worn the cameras, here and in other cities, are very much in favor of them.

这个地方和其他城市使用过这种摄影机的大多数警察都非常喜欢它。

Rita Watkins, the executive director of the Law Enforcement Management Institute of Texas, said there is statewide demand for body cameras.

德克萨斯执法管理研究所执行主任利塔·沃特金斯表示全州都想配备这种设备。

“I can tell you that right now there are chiefs who are budgeting, within their budget and asking their community leadership for the funds to initiate and start a fund for the body camera program.”

“我可以告诉你的是，很多警察局的局长正在从预算中拨款，并且呼吁他们的上级提供资金开展可穿戴相机项目。”

She said legal experts also are considering how photos and videos taken by average citizens should be handled.

她表示法律问题专家也在考虑如何处理普通市民拍摄的照片和视频。

“We also have the public that is capturing video. So how do they maintain it and what is their duty and responsibility for making that information available to law enforcement?”

“民众也在进行拍摄，他们会怎样处理，他们有什么样的义务和责任向执法机关提供信息？”

Both she and McClelland are also concerned about what happens if a video file becomes corrupted or disappears.

她和麦克兰德局长还担心如果一段视频损坏或者丢失了该如何处理。

“This technology is man-made and at some point any man-made object will malfunction.”

“这是需要用到人的技术，这种技术有可能会在某个时刻发生故障。”

he said such a technical glitch could ignite discord in a city like Baltimore, where there already is distrust of the police.

他表示表示这样的技术故障可能使得巴尔的摩等警察信任度已经降低的城市引发混乱。

He also worries that routine communication between officers and citizens will diminish because of the cameras.

他还担心这样的设备会让警方和民众之间的日常交流越来越少。

“The officer is recording the citizen and the citizen may be using his or her cellphone to record the officer.”

“警方在拍民众，对方可能用自己的手机在拍我们的警员。”

He said body cameras offer benefits, McClelland said, but they also represent a continuing financial burden for police as cameras become obsolete every few years and must be replaced by newer, better ones.

他表示这种设备会带来益处，但由于每隔几年就要更新换代，这会为警方带来持续的财政负担。