Public Safety

Mobile phone cameras

Police officers, sheriff’s deputies, coroner’s investigators, corrections officers, firefighters, paramedics and ambulance personnel are exposed to persons who have suffered horrible injuries and violent deaths. Some seasoned rescue workers and evidence technicians avoid stress by intentionally distancing themselves from tragedies. [1] Management has the right to designate mandatory and permitted equipment worn by its on-duty personnel, although a recognized bargaining unit is permitted to negotiate over “safety equipment.” [2]

Catsouras incident

One of the more prominent instances of the misuse of photographs followed the decapitation of an 18-year-old driver who had crashed into a toll booth on Halloween, 2006. According to Newsweek, the “accident was so gruesome the coroner wouldn’t allow her parents to identify their daughter’s body.” Photographs of the scene were taken by California Highway Patrol officers as part of their routine fatal collision procedures. Her parents sued the CHP, alleging that two officers had e-mailed nine grotesque images to their friends and family members on Halloween