Bill to Tape D.C. Police Interviews is Vetoed

[Romulus]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A31322-2005Jan23.html

Mayor Anthony A. Williams (D) has vetoed a bill that would require District police to videotape interrogations of suspects in serious crimes, a proposal that enjoyed broad support from the D.C. Council.

The council approved the tape-recording bill by a vote of 12 to 1 last month as part of an effort to force D.C. police to comply with a similar requirement that had been on the D.C. books for more than two years and that the department for the most part had not followed.

*snip*

But Williams notified the council in a letter Friday that he cannot support the bill because it could make unrecorded confessions inadmissible in court and let violent criminals go free. D.C. Attorney General Robert J. Spagnoletti and the U.S. attorney's office supported the mayor's decision.

*snip*

But in a report to the council presented late last year, the department acknowledged that the requirement had not been implemented consistently. Barely 20 percent of the interrogations that should have been recorded last year were recorded even in part, according to the report.


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Who has time to videotape when you need both hands to put the smack down on perps? </sarcasm>

[placton]

1. the veto is an invitation to lie

directed right at the cops. What rational person would not want the best evidence that the confession was (a) made and (b) voluntary?

Nope, better to let the cops test-i-lie.

[DrGonzoLives]

2. What are the police afraid of?

Hell, they want to videotape us everywhere except in the bathroom. Why can't they be under watch too?