Video of police encounters would reduce perjury in Texas

by Scott Henson of of Grits For Breakfast

Police Perjury: "Judges let it slide. Prosecutors often encourage it," says Steven Gustitis, a criminal defense lawyer from Bryan, Texas blogging at The Defense Perspective. He laments Gov. Perry's veto of a bill in 2005 that would require written or recorded consent at traffic stops, legislation I wrote about quite a bit on Grits. Writes Gustitis:

I can't count how many times clients told me about the police searching their vehicles without consent, but the police report showed the officer's justification for the search was consent. Had these encounters been video taped I bet we'd have beaten some of those searches. However, since nothing was recorded it was always my client's word against that of the officer. Who do you think the judge and prosecutor believed?

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Chad Jones, says:

Perjury is a stinker in my book, but is this really the way to go?: http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/ar...

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2 years, 4 months ago
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terryorze, says:

This will never work. I think the police officers would just shut off the camera or erase the parts they don't want the Jury to see. Shut off the camera, plant the fake cocaine turn the camera on and discover it. No big deal.