[vkou]

With high-def video (Which can now be taken by most cellphones), the names and numbers are clearly legible.

As another poster commented, police have reacted to it by putting electrical tape over those numbers. The problem of getting that tape removed is considered near-insurmountable by Seattle's mayor, and the SPD police chief - who both acknowledge it, but for multiple days in a row, are somehow unable to get it solved.

[downerending]

I've noticed that employees in many professions are covering (often "accidentally") the identifying information on their badges. Not crazy about that, but I'm sure they're not crazy about having crazies show up on their doorstep at midnight.

The advent of our panopticon arguably makes this less important. Maybe we should keep expanding that.