Re: Optional activation = propaganda
"... these will break just like any other piece of electronics that gets routinely smashed about and soaked in fluids." Or tossed on police station roofs.
These will break when it suits the users to have them broken and it will behoove those who administer this scheme to pay very close attention to how often they break and who they break for.
Personal experience with police is that _most_ are ok, but there are enough psycho/sociopaths in the organisation (with increasing numbers further up the ranking structure) that accountability and oversight needs to be strict. Instead these people try to get police held to a lesser standard than the general public - and frequently succeed in doing so.
One of the single largest problems within any police organisation is that calling such individuals out results in the caller being tainted by claims of "grassing people up" and gang-mentality revenge kicking in. Such accusations and attitudes are what you'd find in criminal circles and have no place in law enforcement/peace keeping.
With any luck "optional activation" will be declared a failure and the things will be on 24*7. For shits and giggles it would be interesting if the things were recording anyway, even when cops thought they'd disabled them. It's amazing what people will say if they think they've shut down recordings (which is why it's always worth carrying _2_ recorders and letting them see you turn one off).
Biting the hand that feeds IT
