Police Cameras, Jet Lag, Eye on the Struggle
Top of Mind with Julie Rose - Season 1, Episode 44
- Apr 16, 2015 6:00 am
- 1:43:04 mins
Police Body Cameras (1:12) Guest: William Sousa, director of the Center for Crime and Justice Policy and an associate professor in the Department of Criminal Justice at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas Two officers in recent weeks have been charged with murder in the shooting of civilians -- and in both cases, the murder charge might not have been made had the shooting not been captured on video. In Tulsa, Oklahoma, the shooting by a volunteer officer was recorded on a body camera he was wearing. In South Carolina, a bystander captured officer Michael Slager shooting Walter Scott multiple times in the back as he ran away. The incidents have renewed calls by the Obama Administration and others to put body cameras on all police officers as a way to increase law enforcement accountability and community trust. A new poll by YouGov and the Economist finds 88 percent of Americans support body cameras for police, too. But the technology may also have some drawbacks. "There are no firm results with the research yet. We’re waiting for a year till results are coming in. We have found lately, though, that police body cameras are reducing complaints of officer misconduct or what people perceive as officer misconduct. We’re hoping that in the end that this is a good thing. Police officers are saying, citizens are behaving themselves more. And, citizens who don’t have good experiences with police say, police are behaving themselves more." Jet Lag and Fruit Fly Brains (21:01) Guest: Todd C. Holmes, professor of physiology and biophysics at the University of California Irvine and lead researcher on the fruit fly study published in the journal Current Biology A new study published in the journal Current Biology gets at the reasons why we experience jet lag when travelling across time zones. It has to do with light and the synchronization of our body's circadian clock. And the researchers behind the study figured this out by manipulating the disembodied brains of fruit flies in jars. "To decrease the effects of jet l