Mike Barber's police body camera baloney

GREENSBORO, NC -- At the League of Women voters Greensboro City Council candidates forum on Tuesday, Councilman Mike Barber said this about police body worn cameras:

"I want every body worn camera worn by a police officer to live stream on the internet."

Baloney. This is a canard belied as untrue by Barber's actions.

Putting aside whether or not live streaming police video is a good idea (and on reflection, it's not: think victim interviews, medical emergencies, etc.), the thing to remember is that Mike Barber had a chance not that long ago to have Greensboro police video live streamed to the Internet and he sat on his hands.

In the spring of 2016, the city undertook the task of crafting a body worn camera policy. This was before the state law passed later in the year that took control of such decisions from cities. But before the state law, when Greensboro's efforts were underway, there was a policy proposed by citizens, another policy proposal ostensibly crafted by councilman Justin Outling and Mayor Vaughan and the one that passed, authored by the city attorney.

At a meeting that spring, Barber said then too that he would like to have police video live streamed to the internet but he never acted. That was gas then and it's gas now.

Barber never offered his "live stream to the internet" idea in any policy when he had a chance—never put it forward when it could have actually been debated and maybe become policy. He could have. Other people were actively working to craft a policy, putting ideas on the table for consideration, but not Barber.

It's easy for Barber now to say he'd like to live stream police video when he knows state law makes that impossible, but we won't forget that when he actually had a chance to put his idea into motion, he was missing in action.