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Are Police Turning Camera Shy?

By Clarence Page, Tribune Content Agency on

Some police say the stress of always being seen in a negative light in the post-Ferguson era is taking its toll. I am tempted as the father of a young African-American male to say, join the club.

Since I have great respect for police and for my son, my advice to both is basically the same: Try to be less suspicious.

Speaking to the International Association of Chiefs of Police meeting in Chicago, FBI Director James Comey doubled down Monday on his controversial remarks last week about a "Ferguson effect" or a "YouTube effect."

Those labels describe the possibility that a rise in violent crime in some cities over the past year may be the result of less aggressive policing in the wake of high-profile and sometimes video-recorded killings of black men by police.

"Ferguson effect" refers to the national eruption of controversy that followed the police shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Mo., followed by the deaths of Eric Garner, Tamir Rice and others at the hands of officers.

Since almost everyone has a television studio's worth of broadcasting power in their pocket or purse these days, police officers increasingly describe arriving on crime scenes and facing more cameras than a Kardashian family reunion.

 

With the possibility that any wrong move -- and even right moves that don't look very nice -- can go viral on YouTube, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel told another recent gathering of law enforcers in Washington that officers have backed away from situations that could result in negative media coverage.

"We have allowed our police department to get fetal and it is having a direct consequence," Emanuel said, according to the Washington Post. "... They don't want to be a news story themselves, they don't want their career ended early, and it's having an impact."

A Chicago police union official objected to Emanuel's suggestion that officers have gotten "fetal," and reactions similarly have been mixed when the notion has been raised elsewhere.

One important point on which Comey and Attorney General Loretta Lynch, among other experts, agree is that more data is needed. The "Ferguson effect" is like Bigfoot, as The Atlantic's David Graham put it: Some say it's real; others doubt it; some say they have seen it, but there's no hard evidence that it exists.

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(c) 2015 CLARENCE PAGE DISTRIBUTED BY TRIBUNE MEDIA SERVICES, INC.

 

 

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