[fish_phrenology]

The Seattle Police Department has both their badge numbers, as well as name tags. As you said, neither is particularly easy to read in the best of circumstances. Of course it’s made even more difficult by the officers covering the badge numbers (and in less frequent cases, their name tags) with tape. I’ve seen both in person during the last week. The official explanation for covering badge numbers is weak, and the mayor’s response to protestor requests that badges are left uncovered was even weaker. Of course this pales in comparison to the turning-off body cam before attacking policy.

[kayfox]

This is further a problem because Seattle has at least one current badge design the puts the number in the middle of the badge. Many other agencies avoid this as they either have a traditional badge with large numbers at the bottom like many NYPD badges, or they understand that mourning bands are a thing and avoid placing the badge number where the band may cover up.

As a forward looking policy, agencies should generally prohibit obscuring the agency and officer identification for uniformed officers and design those things to enhance their readability and prevent common practices like mourning bands from obscuring them.

As for the body camera policy, Seattle has a history of using video surveillance during protests to identify protesters for later prosecution, in particular this happened during the WTO protests and Iraq War protests.

A common call from protesters has been that journalists and photographers documenting the protest avoid publishing clear photos that would allow the police and other parties the ability to identify protesters, so there are conflicting calls on that particular policy.

I think the long term solution to that is a legal disincentive for police departments to prosecute protesters and a trust in the police and judiciary that they can take such recordings and use them for accountability rather than prosecutions.