In order to increase transparency between police and the public, the Seattle Police Department has created a YouTube page where the department will post videos from officers’ body worn cameras.
The videos, which are being uploading to the YouTube page, SPD BodyWornVideo, are blurred and without sound. This was done for privacy concerns, Reuters reported.
A majority of the videos, most recently from a Martin Luther King Jr. Protest, are in black and white.
Seattle Police, under federal monitoring for excessive force, have not been immune from criticism over officer interactions with minorities. Police Chief Kathleen O’Toole issued an apology last month for the wrongful arrest of an elderly black man by an officer who said he swung a golf club at her.
Video of that incident showed the man leaning on the club for support and not lifting it toward the officer.
“The goal here is to balance transparency with protecting the privacy of citizens, who might be scooped up, swept up, onto the video just by being in the vicinity,” Seattle police spokesman Drew Fowler told Reuters.
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