What am I missing here?
Okay, quick backstory. Cops in Fullerton, CA, beat a crazy homeless guy so badly he goes into a coma and dies in the hospital a few days later. Police chief's since gone on medical leave, there's the standard bit where the folks on one side think the cops were justified in using the force they did, the folks on the other side who think these guys should all go to prison, and so on. But in the midst of the let's-get-to-the-bottom-of-this, check this out:
Fullerton's acting police chief acknowledged Thursday that the department had allowed police officers involved in a deadly encounter with a homeless man to watch a video that captures the incident before writing their reports about it.
Acting Chief Kevin Hamilton said supervisors allowed the review so that the officers would have a chance to refresh their memory and write an accurate account of the incident involving Kelly Thomas.
But the practice is at odds with the way many other police departments deal with serious use-of-force cases. The LAPD's former inspector general, Jeffrey Eglash, said that allowing police to look at video before giving evidence is a "bad practice."
[...]
"You want each person's recollection. I would look at the videotape like another witness," he said. "It allows the officers to conform their statements to other evidence rather than getting their independent witness recollection. It is not a practice that advances the truth-seeking."
[...]
Hamilton said there was no hidden agenda in allowing the officers to see what the video showed.
"Sometimes audio tapes or videotapes can refresh an officer's memory to what happened and then they can write about it," he said. "The videotapes were not shown to the officers in an effort to flavor anything."
The Orange County district attorney's office, which is investigating Thomas' death along with the FBI, has refused to release the tape publicly, saying investigators believe it could influence witness recollections. The Fullerton police have also rejected requests to make the tape public.
So investigators won't make the video public, because any witnesses who saw it might have their recollections influenced by the video. But they showed it to the cops...specifically so that their recollections could be influenced by the video.
Gotcha. Makes sense.
Fullerton's acting police chief acknowledged Thursday that the department had allowed police officers involved in a deadly encounter with a homeless man to watch a video that captures the incident before writing their reports about it.
Acting Chief Kevin Hamilton said supervisors allowed the review so that the officers would have a chance to refresh their memory and write an accurate account of the incident involving Kelly Thomas.
But the practice is at odds with the way many other police departments deal with serious use-of-force cases. The LAPD's former inspector general, Jeffrey Eglash, said that allowing police to look at video before giving evidence is a "bad practice."
[...]
"You want each person's recollection. I would look at the videotape like another witness," he said. "It allows the officers to conform their statements to other evidence rather than getting their independent witness recollection. It is not a practice that advances the truth-seeking."
[...]
Hamilton said there was no hidden agenda in allowing the officers to see what the video showed.
"Sometimes audio tapes or videotapes can refresh an officer's memory to what happened and then they can write about it," he said. "The videotapes were not shown to the officers in an effort to flavor anything."
The Orange County district attorney's office, which is investigating Thomas' death along with the FBI, has refused to release the tape publicly, saying investigators believe it could influence witness recollections. The Fullerton police have also rejected requests to make the tape public.
So investigators won't make the video public, because any witnesses who saw it might have their recollections influenced by the video. But they showed it to the cops...specifically so that their recollections could be influenced by the video.
Gotcha. Makes sense.