Police officers are terrified that if the public sees how they do their work, they will be less able to do that work effectively. That mentality seems to have made its way all the way to the FBI Director who said Friday that the increased presence of cell phone video may be contributing to the increase in violent crime.
James Comey said that he has been told by officers that the increases in violence in major cities is tied to “the era of viral videos.”
“I don’t know whether this explains it entirely, but I do have a strong sense that some part of the explanation is a chill wind blowing through American law enforcement over the last year, and that wind is surely changing behavior,” he said.
Comey said the officers he has spoken with have told him that they feel “under siege.”
“They told me, ‘We feel like we’re under siege and we don’t feel much like getting out of our cars,'” said Comey.
For more on this, read the article from CBS News titled: “FBI director: Cellphone cameras may partly explain rise in violent crime.“
