sfgate | San Francisco's fire chief has explicitly banned firefighters from
using helmet-mounted video cameras, after images from a battalion
chief's Asiana Airlines crash recording became public and led to
questions about first responders' actions leading up to a fire rig
running over a survivor.
Chief Joanne Hayes-White said she issued the order after discovering that Battalion Chief Mark Johnson's helmet camera filmed the aftermath of the July 6 crash at San Francisco International Airport. Still images from the footage were published in The Chronicle.
Filming
the scene may have violated both firefighters' and victims' privacy,
Hayes-White said, trumping whatever benefit came from knowing what the
footage shows.
"There comes a time that privacy of the individual is paramount, of greater importance than having a video," Hayes-White said.
Critics, including some within the department, questioned the chief's
order and its timing - coming as Johnson's footage raised the
possibility of Fire Department liability in the death of 16-year-old Ye Meng Yuan. Fist tap Dale.
