Cops’ body cameras raise privacy issues

LOSANGELES — America’s largest sheriff’s department still lacks a policy for body cameras after years of studying the issue, so hundreds — perhaps thousands — of its deputies have taken matters into their own hands and bought the cameras themselves.

It’s reassuring for those Los Angeles County sheriff’s deputies who have the devices, which sell for about $100 online, but it raises a host of thorny questions about transparency. Chief among them: How can the public be assured critical footage will be shared if there are no policies for what gets disclosed?

“It’s a recipe for disaster,” said Melanie Ochoa, a staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California. “I would imagine officers would be quite willing to turn it over if it paints them in a good light, but what is the access if it does not?”

Nearly every large U.S. police department has a policy for officers who wear body cameras, and it has become somewhat common to see video from these cameras emerge.

An estimated 20 percent of Los Angeles County’s 10,000 deputies have bought cameras for themselves, according to the county’s inspector general. Sheriff Jim McDonnell concedes some deputies have their own cameras but disputes that as many as 2,000 wear them on duty.

Man dies in police struggle

PHILADELPHIA— Police shotand killed a man they saidtried to grab the guns of firstone officer and then anotherduring a confrontation innorth Philadelphia.

Police said officers were responding to a report of a stolen vehicle Friday evening when the 31-year-old suspect tried to grab an officer’s gun as he was being handcuffed.

Capt. Sekou Kinebrew said the man eventually stopped struggling, but when backup officers arrived he tried to grab the service weapon of one of the arriving officers.

Capt. Kinebrew said officers opened fire, and the man was pronounced dead shortly afterward at Temple University Hospital.

NASA plane to see eclipse

SEATTLE—ANASA research plane, with the agency’s science director onboard, will fly out of Boeing Field in Seattle on Aug. 21 to capture the first video of the total solar eclipse as it sweeps ashore at the Oregon coast.

“We’re kicking off the show,” said Leslie Williams, spokeswoman for NASA’s Armstrong Flight Research Center in Southern California, where the plane is based. The video will be part of a livestream on NASA TV that tracks the eclipse along its 2,500-mile path from Oregon to South Carolina.

Seattle was selected for the mission because of its location and the opportunity to collaborate on public outreach with the Museum of Flight, which sits right on Boeing Field, said Ted Huetter, the museum’s public-relations manager.

5 die after obesity surgery

WASHINGTON—The Foodand Drug Administrationis investigating the suddendeaths of five people who hadundergone an obesity treatmentthat places an inflatedsilicone balloon in their stomach.

All deaths happened within a month of the procedure, the FDA said in a letter earlier this week to healthcare providers.

The agency, however, cautioned that it has yet to determine whether the devices or the procedure directly caused those deaths.

Symptoms include abdominal pain, swelling of the abdomen, difficulty breathing, vomiting and pancreatitis.