There’s a simple rule to police brutality, well illustrated by the case of Rodney King: video cameras can both punish unwarranted police violence and act as a deterrent. Despite this knowledge, D.C. Mayor Anthony Williams (D) notified the D.C. City Council that he was vetoing a bill to make the videotaping of police interrogations mandatory last Friday. While the D.C. Council has vowed to override the veto-the original bill passed 12-1-it is regrettable that such a measure is necessary. In a city plagued with violent crime, confessions are often the linchpins to securing a conviction. Every action possible must be taken to preserve the integrity of police interrogations as evidence in court.
The purpose behind the measure is to ensure that police officers do not use physical force to beat confessions out of people. Recording interrogation sessions also make it more difficult for defense attorneys to claim that the confessions were coerced.
Williams claims that the bill is unacceptable because it contains a provision that makes unrecorded confessions inadmissible in court. He says this will allow many violent criminals to go free. However, this would not be an issue if the Metropolitan Police Department had followed the guidelines set forth by the D.C. Council back in 2002. Since that time, it has been D.C. law that interrogations must be videotaped when the suspect is charged with a violent crime. Unfortunately, a report presented to the D.C. Council showed that only 20 percent of interrogations had been recorded over the last two years.
These facts make it clear that MPD is not taking seriously the need to record confessions. As such, the steps taken by the D.C. Council should be supported. Recording interrogations will help ensure that confessions are not coerced, and will give prosecutors solid evidence upon which to secure convictions. However, the D.C. Council needs to ensure that the inadmissibility clause does not allow criminals to walk if their confession was not videotaped prior to the law going into effect.
Mayor Williams should realize that, in the long run, this bill would help protect police officers against accusations of brutality and strengthen cases against criminals. Many judges are already skeptical of confessions as evidence, and this measure should put their doubts to rest. More importantly, this bill will help to put away criminals who are truly guilty.
