#196 / Body Cams For Politicians?

 

Santa Cruz attorney Ed Frey, pictured above, thinks "politics" is corrupt. He's got a pretty good point, it seems to me. He has a proposed solution, too. Query on the solution!

Frey believes that we have "thoughtlessly allowed our politicians and their parties to conduct the public's business in private." For instance, he says, "when a lobbyist meets with an elected legislator, we don't even find out that they're meeting (or texting or emailing or phoning), let alone what they are saying to each other. It is obvious that this secret dealing inevitably breeds corruption."

Frey would like the voters to insist that elected officials work to enact a law that would address this matter as follows: 

All elected officeholders and candidates [must] wear a device that records all their conversations about public business and post these recordings online every day, along with the text of every written political communication they get and read or send out.

I saw Ed Frey in downtown Santa Cruz in early July, and he handed me an orange flyer, announcing a campaign to enact such a law, and further announcing a series of meetings at Soquel Elementary School, 2700 Porter Street, Soquel, to be held every Sunday at 12:00 noon, starting on July 4th. If you favor body cams for candidates (and for all elected officials), you may want to hear more about it and/or get involved. 

 

As a former elected official myself, I am less certain than Ed Frey that this particular solution will cure the problem! I tend to favor more direct participation in politics, at every level, by every one of us - political "nobodies" and political "somebodies" included.

 

 

Image Credit:

https://www.santacruzsentinel.com/2015/10/08/lawsuit-petitioning-santa-cruz-county-to-house-all-homeless-thrown-out/