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Embedded: Police Videos Aren't Going Away. How Can We Learn From Them?

Chelsea Beck/NPR

Tuesday, June 6 at 7:00 pm:

Hosted by All Things Considered’s Kelly McEvers, Embedded showcases her in-depth reporting on videos of police encounters and how the proliferation of this kind of video has affected life in America.

The hour features three stories, each centering on a different incident. In one, an unarmed black man is fatally shot by police. The dash-cam footage is subsequently used by both the prosecution and the defense as the officer stands trial. In another, a policeman’s body-cam captures his own death at the hands of a suspect. That haunting video goes on to become a big part of police training even as it raises many questions. Finally, a tense standoff between an officer and a murder suspect ends without a single bullet fired. (This is a local story. It happened in in 2015.) And how the ubiquity of these videos may have led to that outcome.

The three stories portray a vivid picture of the current cultural moment; one that some researchers say is prompting the most significant reevaluation of police-community relations since the videotaped beating of Rodney King in the early 1990s.