So I guess my proposal is that any officer who carries a gun should be required to wear a "badge number" of some form, readable from 15-feet, on their back. The badge-number should be a ID that can be matched against a public website to identify the individual, name, bureau, and a picture of course. After all... If they aren't doing anything wrong they have nothing to hide...
I'd also add that failure to do so should result in a $1,000 penalty, half of which should go as a $500 reward to anybody who reports the case (photo would suffice as proof). Officers should have their whereabouts tracked via there phones for accountability purposes, which could be used to verify such reports or identify officers.
And body camera footage should be always streaming to a well known bucket, encrypted of course, but with publicly verifiable keys. Anyone should be able to "backup" body camera footage for any cop for any time range. Getting access to the decryption keys should be a matter of filling out the proper forms.
Body cameras should never be able to be turned off. The most that should be done is an officer should be able to hit a button to drop a marker into the timeline.
How do you enforce the penalty if the perpetrator is anonymous? Fine their management instead? That doesn't work when the executive branch is above the law.
It's hard to track them down if they don't have the ID number, so the penalty must be very high. Get fired from the force; loss of pension, large fine, etc.
Very good point. Would also make spotting undercover cops easier.
Finally, we'd be at the point 90ies Warez kids thought we were at. "If he wears no badge number on his back, he can't be a cop, otherwise nothing can be used in court. We're safe, boys".
This is the least charitable interpretation of GP's proposal possible. A small amendment to GP's comment to apply only uniformed officers operating in public—as the D.C. troops from the article are—negates this reductio ad absurdum.
I'd also add that failure to do so should result in a $1,000 penalty, half of which should go as a $500 reward to anybody who reports the case (photo would suffice as proof). Officers should have their whereabouts tracked via there phones for accountability purposes, which could be used to verify such reports or identify officers.