Do surveillance cameras prevent crime? SkyCop didn't help Tyre Nichols trends now
When police in Memphis launched the first SkyCop surveillance cameras in 2007, department chiefs could hardly have imagined the most horrific crime caught by the network after 16 years in operation would be carried out by its own officers.
The clearest video of the brutal January 7 attack that killed Tyre Nichols was filmed by one of the 2,100 cameras installed around the city at a cost of more than $10 million.
They are supposed to make people safer. However, critics feel Americans are trading their privacy for a tool that helps catch criminals but struggles to fulfill its promise of preventing crime.
Harrowing, high-definition footage captured by a SkyCop shows five Memphis PD officers take it in turns to punch, kick and pepper-spray Nichols in a brutal attack which lasted around five minutes.
The remainder of the 31-minute video shows Nichols, 29, dragged over to a nearby car and propped against it. Officers are recorded strolling around his slumped body as he writhes in agony. At one point, an officer lights a cigarette. Others repeatedly shine their flashlights into the young man's battered face while they wait for paramedics to arrive.
The SkyCop footage provided the clearest view of the shocking beating of Tyre Nichols at the hands of officers from Memphis Police Department
There are more than 2,000 SkyCop cameras like this in Memphis. One of the police-operated surveillance cameras captured the clearest footage of the horrific beating of Tyre Nichols
Tyre Nichols, 29, died on January 10 from cardiac arrest and kidney failure, three days after he was beaten by police officers in Memphis. A SkyCop surveillance camera operated by Memphis Police Department recorded the clearest footage of the brutal beating
Charged with second degree murder are (clockwise from top left) Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Emmitt Martin III, Justin Smith and Desmond Mills Jr. The attack was filmed by one of Memphis PD's own cameras
Police body cameras also recorded footage and audio of the beating, but it's shaky, chaotic and at times obscured. SkyCop provides the clearest footage of the incident which triggered protests across America.
As Van Turner, the president of the NAACP's Memphis branch, puts it: 'Glory be to God that a SkyCop camera was there to catch what happened.'
The SkyCop cameras in Memphis form part of the growing network of surveillance cameras across the United States. There are an estimated 85 million, roughly one for every four citizens, making it the most monitored country in the world per capita.
While these cameras have provided crucial evidence of countless crimes, critics say not only is there little proof they work as a prevention tool, they claim the increasingly sophisticated devices also present a growing threat to privacy and civil liberties.
The role played by a surveillance camera in Nichols' killing has triggered fresh scrutiny over their use as a tool for law enforcement. The grim irony that it was police officers filmed committing such a brutal crime is not lost on observers.
Turner added: 'Little did we know we would be combating this type of criminal behavior, as well. We put SkyCop cameras up to assist the police in fighting crime in our community. And yet they come and commit the very same crimes we are trying to fight against.'
This also isn't the first time police misconduct in Memphis has been recorded by one of their own SkyCop devices. In November 2018, officers from the city's Organized Crime Unit were recorded firing at a suspected drug dealer who was attempting to flee cops in a Chevy Malibu. An official report found the shots, which apparently struck the car but not the suspect, were 'not justified'.
Other major cities across the country use similar surveillance networks to deter and combat crime.
Memphis' SkyCop cameras are monitored from the police department's real time crime center. As well as receiving live feeds of more than 2,000 cameras, the center also uses technology including vehicle number plate recognition and gunshot detection sensors
The real time crime center in Memphis is fitted with dozens of screens that allow police to monitor the network of SkyCop cameras in real time
A SkyCop camera provided the clearest footage of the deadly beating of Tyre Nichols in Memphis on January 7. SkyCop is part of America's growing network of surveillance cameras
In New York City, the NYPD uses the 'Domain Awareness System', the largest network of its kind in the world. It was launched in partnership with Microsoft and cost hundreds of millions of dollars to establish, maintain and operate. It consists of around 20,000 surveillance cameras, along with license plate readers and audio sensors that can detect gunfire and triangulate its location.
Like in Memphis, the information is fed back to a 'real time crime center' staffed by officials day and night.
Joe Patty, a former Memphis police official who's now a consultant for SkyCop, installed the camera which captured the beating of Nichols.
He told the Washington Post: 'Crimes of passion cannot be deterred. I don't care if there's a squad car sitting on a lot. We don't even try to sell it or pitch it like that.
'In the Nichols case, that was a crime of passion, and it was caught on video. So it had a dual purpose: There was no deterrent factor, but it was valuable in this case.'
He added: 'SkyCop is there, 365 days a
