Pistol Cam an idea whose time has NOT come – not yet at least

In the wake of the acquittal of three NYC police officers in the Sean Bell shooting, makers of the Pistol Cam are touting it as a way to stop police hair triggers


The camera, pictured on a police automatic (video at the bottom of the webpage linked above) sounds brilliant, right? It’s a handgun’s variant to the squad car cameras that, fortunately, are becoming almost ubiquitous at police departments above the smallest of towns.

But, I see several physical and psychological problems with this baby.

First, on the physical side… how does that gun draw from a holster? If it doesn’t hang up, what’s the “feel” of the weapon, etc?

Psychologically, this is definitely not the same as a squad car cam. I could see it making officers fearful of being second-guessed. A squad car camera monitors all actions by a police officer. A camera on a pistol monitors just one thing.

Besides, as one commenter at Raw Story noted, the Pistol Cam would not have any info about the run-up to the shooting.

What are you going to do next, mount a CIA-type cam in an officer’s badge?