department and how it polices the city. but how are those decisions made and are they made at random or made for specific purpose, and that s a big question i have. chief dixon, you and i were in a panel discussion the other day. the broken window theory which you see applied in situations like broken taillight, is not a zero tolerance theory. there is still discretion involved. i drive a car that s almost as old as gene robinson and i ve had some not working taillights. i ve never, ever been pulled over for that never. i ve only been pulled over when i was seriously over the speed limit. so talk about that discretion in a case like this with that broken taillight, and how that kind of discretion should be applied. it should be applied not dealing with any of the protected classes.
right. so what is there to hide? you know, look, i try to stay away from hyperbole, i try not to go overboard. but the words police state do come to mind when you talk about not being able to take pictures of the police officers who work for us, doing their duty. god bless them, i m very happy they work for us protecting us, it s great. but we should have the right to take their picture. chief dixon, how much of these new cameras is the individual police officer s ignorance of the actual law and the constitution protections of the first amendment, how much of it is willful misconduct on their part this i think what happens is you have officers in the middle of whatever they re doing and they get caught up in the moment and they react to it.
taser, taser, taser. joining us now, eugene robinson and former sheriff of king county washington and a member of the president s task force on 21est century policing. also joining us david harris, law professor at the university of pittsburgh. and john dixon, chief of police for petersburg, virginia. chief dixon, i just want to go to you on the technicals of what we re picking up on this dash cam. how to we get the audio so clear at that distance from the patrol car in because some of the audio systems, depending on what they
the other guests are. so i don t know what the officer is supposed to do when a guy for a routine traffic stop suddenly gets out of the car and dashes away. and obviously if he s unarmed, there s a problem with shooting him eight times. but up to that point, i m not i don t see much there. that s what i said. there s no clue there that this is going to end this way. david harris your reading of what you re seeing in that dash cam video? i agree with the other guest, there s nothing here but a routine traffic stop. the brake light or a taillight appears to be out and the officer has every right at that point to pull the vehicle over make an inquiry, issue a citation or a warning. that looks like what was happening right there. all a very routine manner. chief dixon, given the two pieces of video that we ve seen this approach to the car, which
you can be within 20 feet of the police and do whatever you want but don t turn on that iphone. they know this is the thing, as is shown repeatedly that can lock them into a problem unlike any eyewitness testimony can. right. so what is there to hide? you know look i try to stay away from hyperbole, i try not to go overboard. but the words police state do come to mind when you talk about not being able to take pictures of the police officers who work for us, doing their duty. god bless them i m very happy they work for us protecting us, it s great. but we should have the right to take their picture. chief dixon, how much of these new cameras is the individual police officer s ignorance of the actual law and the constitution protections of