Written on May 9, 2008 – 9:24 am | by Bogdan Alex |
Did you know that cops in Washington DC could soon be compelled to fit their pistols with cameras that are supposed to record “gunsight” video in every situation in which the weapons were drawn? Sort of like recording a gunfight, the first person shooter way.

According to NBC, District of Columbia council member Harry "Tommy" Thomas has introduced a draft local bill which would compel city plods to fit their shooters with under-barrel cam modules. The bill is under consideration by the DC judicial committee.

Gun-mounted camera technology surely isn’t much of a headache to build. There even are affordable solutions on the market. As far as semi-automatic pistols are concerned, these too come with standard equipment that includes mounting rails beneath the frame that allow accessories such as tactical lights or laser sights to be attached. Similarly, cameras can easily be fitted to these, as well. The camera could be set to start recording both sound and video as soon as the weapon is drawn from its holster via a special trigger mechanism. But we know gun draws and stuff like that don’t happen too often.

The basic idea in the case of the Washington DC Police officers is that cameras could safeguard police from malicious accusations of wrongful shooting. But as the door swings both ways, the mounted cameras could also make it much easier to penalize police in the case of mistakes or trigger-happiness.