I strongly urge the people to wear their own bodycam for proof. You can get them on Amazon, etc. If you wear one, make sure that both your empty hands and fingers are clearly visible to it when in a bind. No one should sanely be able to assert that you were reaching for anything.
Which one do you use? Is the battery all day, if not what do you do when the battery dies? (swap batteries? wait and recharge each day?). Has the camera ever saved you? Do people ever feel uncomfortable interacting with you filming them?
I wonder if LLMs will get smart enough to do the majority of the redaction, or at least smart enough to reduce the amount of footage a reviewer needs to process to redact. If so, the cost for footage release should go down towards zero over time. Maybe we'll get to the point where footage is just released automatically rather then requiring a request.
The charged cost is not actually because of operations costs. It is to interfere with transparency. As such, the charged costs will only escalate. Justice is not in the best interest of the one issuing or collecting the fine.
With the paywall speedbump there might be enough time to have LLMs produce replacement copcam video before it's requested. There's a business opportunity for someone.