Legal Question in Criminal Law in South Dakota
police cameras malfunction
if a police officers camera malfunctions (so he says) does he still have to prove probable cause? or does his word still stand? the officer wrote a letter to the camera place saying how great they were and how they were the best cameras they have had.
1 Answer from Attorneys
Re: police cameras malfunction
Cameras sometimes really do malfunction, and the interests of justice would not be served by giving arrestees a "get out of jail free" card every time this happens.
The lack of a video record does not prevent the prosecution from establishing probable cause by other means. After all, prosecutors were able to do this before video cameras were invented.
At trial, you can use the officer's claim that his camera failed at a particularly opportune time for the prosecution to suggest that the camera really didn't fail at all and that the officer is simply making up the story. Whether a jury will agree with you is hard to say.
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