Strategic Camera Use In Sidewalk Ministry

0:00 I'm yours, I'm yours, I'm yours. And Me, Lord, I'm yours, I'm yours. I'm welcome to the Gospel centered pro life podcast, a podcast designed to equip, encourage and challenge you in pro life ministry, and always with a focus on the Gospel. Stay tuned. I felt your passh touch your heart us. Welcome to the Gospel centered pro life podcast. I'm Vicki Kazi York, and I'm here with Daniel Parks. Yeah, it's going pretty well. It's pretty hot out there today. Pretty the nation it is. saw that global warming stuff. But any despite the heat, we were out there on the sidewalk. Well, you were out there, I was not. You were not. I was in the office. Right.

1:00 You were cool on zoom meetings and doing the other things that I do from day to day, and I was melting along with our team and the heat. However, we nonetheless set up a camera and did not forget that, because this is a critical component of being a safe and responsible sidewalk team. Yeah, and that's what we're gonna talk about today, is strategic camera use. All right, that's kind of a weird subject. It is. We did a couple of weeks ago, I think it was the podcast before last maybe, we talked about safety on the sidewalk. You don't remember. Did we mentioned camera usage? I think we mentioned it and the we've mentioned camera usage frequently in these podcasts, but we've never really just devoted a podcast to here are some dudes and don'ts with the camera and we thought this is good.

1:52 You you really, we really should do something more targeted on everything there is to know in the sidewalk about camera use. Yeah, and so specifically, what we're talking about. Most of you guys listening, you're going to know exactly what we're talking about, but those who don't is we're talking about a camera that's placed in a strategic area, not for filming patients. Been Accused of that, but we literally have no vested interest in filming patients and spying on them or whatever. It's really for accountability because we know that going out there confronting evil, one of the darkest places, we believe, in our city, where evil takes place day in and day out, and one of the most evil places at the gates of hell, at the abortion centers.

2:35 We're gonna confront that evil. It can be potentially a volatile situation. Um, PRO aborts are out there right there could be some angry dad's, angry MOMS, angry friends that come and try to get in our face and try to threaten us or even assault us. and Um, actually, I just heard this happened in southern California. There was an older couple doing ministry. I didn't even tell you about this, doing ministry on the side get an abortion center there and some lady come up apparently hit the guy, one of the guys, in the face. He fell back and uh, hit his head and he's at the hospital. Pretty significant stuff going on. She's they're filing charges against the lady. Whether or not they had a camera going, I don't know, though, but I will say that things like that can happen. Now, none of this we don't we don't walk in fear right. God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love and a sound mind. So we'RE gonna walk in fear, we are going to walk in wisdom. So things like that do happen. It's important that we have a camera so we can hold the people accountable, because if we don't have a camera going, oftentimes it can be just our word against theirs. Right. Yeah, yes, so it's it's for our safety.

3:46 It definitely is a is an important tool on the sidewalk out reach box that you that you should have. And in this article we wrote an article, as we always do, Um to accompany the pot hast are almost always but the UM. This article talks about first of all kind of just the general reason that you've just outlined for why why there's a camera out there in the first place, and then we just go through some of the dues and don't and the first thing is, okay, you need a camera. We we agree with that. Where do you place it? Where do we put the camera? Maybe go into a little Daniel, if you can, about what kind of camera we use, because maybe people wouldn't know. Yeah, so the cameras that we use, that we encourage people to get, that we have available for our our missionaries to use, or that if people want to buy, and this is what I point them to. I'M NOT gonna be able to say the name right because it's they're made in China, but it's M I you F L Y or something like that, I don't know, but those and they make a couple of different versions and when we get is kind of bigger and it looks like a lot of what you'll see that police officers have these body cams that they use, and the reason why we use that is because it's all self contained. It's got the memory built into us. You don't have to buy an SD card. It's got a battery built into it and they'll record four to five hours straight through and you can actually put the recording because it's got limited amount of memory, like thirty two gigabytes. That may not mean anything to anyone out there, but what it

5:19 does mean is that eventually that memory is gonna run out, whether it's four hours, five hours, or you know, if you use it consecutive days, eventually at memory is gonna run out, and so you need to set the camera up and there's a feature in it to make it loop, so that means it keeps on recording and when it gets done and it gets full, the memory gets full, it's gonna Record on top of the previous recordings. If an incident does take place, you just stop the camera and it's got a screen on it so you can show the image, but a lot of times the image is so small. If I need to show an image to a police officer or something, I'll kind of connected to my computer and show them from my computer. Um. But yeah, I mean certainly, if you guys want to know, reach out to me. You can shoot me an email Daniel love life dot work, and I'll send you a link to the one that we use. But you can go on Amazon. I mean there's other companies. They're about a hundred and thirty bucks, but in my experience you get what you pay for and these are actually I mean they'll we put them out there in the rain and, you know, harsh weather, and they pretty well stand up to what we uh, what we put them through, and surprisingly they we place them. We're going to talk about placement in detail, but we do place them on top of our cars across the street from from where we stand, a two lane road, and the sound is surprisingly good. You can hear what's happening between the pro abortion crowd and US moms whatever on the on the sidewalk. So we we we've really liked these cameras. They do look like a body Cam, as you pointed out, but we would caution people not to wear body body cams and a

6:55 lot of sidewalk counselors outside of love life. I don't see so many ours are people using them as body camps, but a lot of people do, and there's a reason why we recommend that you do not. Yeah, I always discourage people from wearing a body camp on your body because, number one, it's gonna cut down on the interactions that you're gonna have with women going into the abortion center. I mean, you stop someone going into the abortion center, whether they're walking up or they pulled in uh in their vehicle, they stopped to talk with you and then they see that you've got a camera on, immediately they're gonna shut down. Either that or they're gonna get aggressive and get offended. You think it might, it might neutralize that, but sometimes it makes people more angry to see a camera um because it kind of feels like a breach of privacy and it really kind of is. And even though you're not using the camera to film them, still they're seeing that camera and they think you're gonna use it to plastered on the internet or social media.

7:48 And the truth is we know that these women are coming to these places. Many are driving hours away, even though there might be an abortion center in their town they're driving a couple of towns or cities over because they don't want to be seen at an abortion clinic, and so when they feel like they're being recorded, then that's a problem. So that's why we always encourage folks not to put it on your body but to put it either on a vehicle. Some some cities put it on like, you know, a signpost Um, maybe a light post, some something away from the area of engagement but still pointed out the area of engagement. For example, like at Latrobe, the main area of engagement is that driveway where people pull in and that's where and that's where there's a lot of pro boorts there. If someone gets angry and comes in her face, they're gonna likely it's gonna you can never have a camera everywhere that's gonna get every interaction. This is impossible. You can put fifteen cameras up and you're never gonna pick up on everything that takes place. But have it at the area of engagement. That's where most of hostile activity might take place and you know you're doing the best you can because you've got to kind of way out is because you gotta set the camera up, you gotta make sure you charge it. You gotta make sure you know there's there's some there's some work to do with getting that camera out there.

9:07 It's worth it, but if you're trying to set up like three or four cameras, it will become not worth it anymore and you'll just stop doing it altogether. So it's best to set up one, make it not too difficult for you or for your teams to set up. And I would encourage you, you know, if you're listening to this and you're in one of our love life cities, Um, I would encourage for the sidewalk leaders there to get a camera for each team for each day. You know, you should have a team lead for each day, each Um, each shift, and get a camera for each shift so that each leader has a camera and they take care of that camera, make sure it's charged up and make sure, you know, get set up in all of that stuff. Yeah, that's a good idea. And and one of the other reasons that you have often mentioned in the past for why you would not wear it on your body is you only see what happens directly in front of you if if you're wearing a body cam, whereas if it's set up in the distance, you're gonna see things coming from behind Um and from all angles, hopefully. So it's really important we we actually park our cars strategically for the best position possible where we can mount the camera. The one advantage of putting it on or even inside a car. Inside a car, you're gonna muffle the sound, so just think of that. But if it's on a car, it's on your personal property. It already is your personal property, whereas if you're going to put it on a telephone pole or a tree or whatever, it's no longer on your personal property and I think it's a little bit easier to protect it Um

10:37 and to make a case that this was your personal property. Yeah, but I will say if someone comes up and steals your camera or whatever, even if you have it on a light post or a sign post or something like that, people still can't steal your stuff. You know, if you lean, if you lean your nice hundred and fifty dollar umbrella, which I hope you don't own a hundred and fifty dollar umbrella, but if you did and you lean it against a signpost and someone come up and stole it right and front of you, they would still be a thief and they would still be be liable, criminally liable, for stealing your property, right. And so you got a hundred and thirty dollar camera, someone comes up and steals it just because it's on the light post. That's not okay and you should press charges against them for doing so. Yeah, Um, something about Um being really careful about filming patients. I think I have told this story before, but I'll tell it again because this is a great podcast. To be sure it's it's mentioned. There was a woman who was very engaged with with me, definitely about to choose life, about to go on our mobile ultrasound unit.

11:35 Um, we had really clicked and because of an incident that happened right there at the driveway that had nothing to do with this woman or me and our discussion, one of our team members came over and started filming Um. She was not trying to film this mom, she was trying to film the other person who was trying to run me over and Um. But the mom didn't know that and she was livid and it absolutely shut down that discussion. She was furious, drove into the abortion center. She ended up actually choosing life. She did calm down, come out later, but that almost sabotaged and almost cost that child, um, it's life. So be really careful in all of the camera used that it's very clear you are not there to capture video or photographs of the women, and that's going to happen. It's gonna Happen, but that's not the intention and we would never use the video.

12:41 Like what would be the context for us to use that video anyway? You know, if we take a picture of a mom that chose life and we use that on social media or whatever, we do that with their permission because we have a vested interest in protecting their privacy and protecting that kind of the trust that we built with them in that relationship. So we're not there to breach that trust. Now pro boords have accused us, you know, of using that footage for things, but it's just it's a false accusation. Um, something I want to mention too. It's a little it's not off topic, but it's probably not in your article here, but this is a situation I heard about in Washington state because we realized that if you ever look at these abortion centers, they've got cameras. You know, at Latrobe.

13:22 They've got cameras on almost all four corners of the building right and there was a situation at a plan parenthood there in Washington state where one of the pro abortion people, one of the counter protesters or whatever they call themselves, clinic defenders, actually assaulted a sidewall counselor and he took out charges and the city or the Police Department actually subpoenaed the plant parenthood for their footage because they actually had the footage. The camera was pointed in that direction. So they subpoenaed the plan parenthood and they had to give them the footage and that's ultimately what led to that person being prosecuted. They didn't. That's something also to consider if something does happen, Um, someone threatens you or really if someone is physically violent, because it's going to be a bit of a process. But definitely I would push for the police department and the Prosecution to get Plant parenthood or the abortion center to hand over their footage. Um, they have to do that. If they have footage, they have to hand it over.

14:22 So I wonder what prevented them from tampering with their footage, because they I could see the abortion center where we're at, doing everything in their power. Yeah, yeah, erase it or something. Yeah, yeah, I mean I don't know, maybe it was the hand of God at work in that situation, because to me it's pretty miraculous. But you know, I think there's a sense in which plant parenthood and the abortion clinics don't really want the liability and things that could come with people that are supposedly serving on their behalf. You know, these volunteers are they asked to come out here. If they assault us, ultimately abortion clinic can be sued and I think they want to do everything they can to shield themselves from that. So maybe that's why they gave that up, because they didn't want that person to be out there and create more liability. I don't really know, but it's at least something worth considering. If your camera didn't catch the angle and they have a camera set up, I would definitely be pushing for the police department to get that footage. Yeah, and and do it right there. As you know, we we of course, council. You call police immediately if there's any active aggression or violence, and I would urge the police to go right in immediately and get that camera because if they don't, I'm I'm pretty sure in many cases it would be tampered with. Bottom line, don't count on it.

15:39 You know, have as much as you are able on your own. Protect yourself with your own videotaping, and we're going to go into the second way of doing that Um, but it's good to know that. Yes, I think that is true. If most facilities you're going to be at, they will have their own video system going. So the second thing is, if you don't, you should have a constant for Valence camera like what you've described. We do strongly recommend that. That is looping and constant Um. But everybody has phone camera nowadays, so don't forget that. Bring it with you don't have it, you know, back home in your in your or even in your car. Have it in your pocket ready to use when you're on the sidewalk. I was gonna say even if your camera is perfectly placed across the street and there's some incident taking place and it's getting the footage, you still should pull out your camera phone and take video right away, because it could be another angle that that camera is not getting and you know it's a backup, because you want to be able to hold those people accountable. People that get violent and aggressive. If they get away with it, we'll get more violent and more aggressive. So if they come out one day, let's say, one of the pro abortion people or something, and they're they're pushing you a little bit and they're not held accountable, the next day they're gonna be pushing you a lot and then the next day they might actually just just hit you, you know. Yeah, give these people an inch and they'll take a mile. So this is all about accountability, right and with the same as with the surveillance camera, with your phone camera, there are pros

17:11 and cons, and the positive um is sometimes just pulling it out does uh dampen the level of excitement and the crisis and it makes sometimes it makes the bad guy go away, shrink away, not always. The CON is sometimes, and I have heard this happen, so I know it does happen, it escalates the aggression. Yeah, yeah, that's just what I was talking about earlier. Sometimes it will make people more angry. Most of the time it will calm them down and de escalate them, because then they know that they're being held accountable and that this video. You know, they know that they could go viral acting like a food in front of the abortion center.

17:52 But you have to be aware that sometimes it can get increase the anger. I've been, you know, seen incidents take place, pull out my camera phone and have the Guy who's Ellen at somebody else come right and get in my face and get super aggressive with me, hoping it would de escalate. It actually escalated the situation and really there's no way that we can tell you how it's gonna work. But what we can say is you need to still take your camera phone out and, you know, if they do come over and being aggressive, you don't have to respond to them, you don't have to tell them why you're filming or anything like that. Just keep videotape and make sure you get them on video if they're threatening and if they're being aggressive and let the chips fall where they may. Hang on tight to that phone, because what happens when I have heard about these escalating is they try to grab your phone. Yeah, I had a guy actually slap my phone out of my hand and, uh, it actually fell out of my hand and hit my son who was standing beside me, and I called the police.

18:51 They showed up, I showed him the video of the incident and, uh, they took that guy right to jail. They did. Okay, so so that shows you it as well worth it, UM, calling the police, but having the video evidence. Um. So when I have seen the anger, most often it's when I have, or someone has been inadvertently usually filming, sometimes purposely filming, a patient, a client. Just be careful not to do that. Remember, like you said, they're traveling sometimes from now we're seeing, from many states over to conceal this sin. So they are gonna respond with great anger if they think that sin is being uncovered and might be shown to the world. So Um. So, some kind of a summary then of dues and don't we've already we've already mentioned a few times.

19:45 Don't photograph the clients of the Abortion Center. If it's inadvertent, okay, you know you've done it, but don't let that be obvious. If you must photograph and a client is in the picture somewhere but they're not a source of your video or whatever, try and kind of make it not obvious what you do and if possible, that's not always possible. Something about photographing the pro abortion crowd. Um, we sometimes do it just because we just can't believe what they do and we want we want to show the world, but I think we do need to have to be careful about that. That's sometimes exactly what they want. Yeah, you just trying to draw attention to themselves and they end up really sucking the ear out of the room. Yeah, and so, yeah, if they're not doing things that are violent or, you know, they look like they could be leading to violence, then just don't be videotaping the embryo. Yeah, don't waste your time, don't wait, don't give them the focus and the attention. Um, just you know, your time can be spent better trying to save babies. Always have the phone on you and be ready with it to videotape. have it.

20:55 I have it and I have a belt pack Um, and it's and I've got a sidepote get so that the phone is right there. I can whip it out instantly. Um, if there is direct aggression. So sometimes this has been an issue for me, especially if I'm if it's a really small team, or I'm the one that is videotaping and there's direct aggression and I'm like, do I keep videotaping or do I call the police? And I know, since I have struggled at that moment about which do I do, I'm not the only one. Other people need and so maybe if we talk about that a little bit before you find yourself, if you find yourself in that situation, what we would recommend you do. You'll do what is best at that moment. Yeah, I mean if you can still keep videotaping and have your other teammate, if you have another teammate, call nine one one, you can do that. But I think the best is, especially if you've got a camera setup and it likely is catching what's going on on the on the camera, this valance camera. m then do shut your video down and call nine one one on your phone. Yeah, even saying call nine one one to your teammate again is going to hopefully deescalate aggression because they know that, uh, no one wants the police coming after them. Usually.

22:15 We did have one person tell us she already had a record a mile long. She always gets out on bail, so it's no big deal. Called the cops all we want, but that's not it is it is um remember that that video maybe the evidence that is needed to either arrest or rebuke whoever it is. So it is important that you do have, um, someone videotaping, and I don't know if I mention it, but I think it's probably not a bad idea to tell all team members they could potentially be the person of videotape, but maybe designate someone. Hey, this is your role, if use among your other roles, but if you see aggression, you're in charge of trying to get over there in videotape. Normally it would be, of course, whoever is closest, if there's someone close, but it's not a bad idea to alert team members so and so is the person that's kind of going to be in charge in charge of that. We talked about avoid body cams. UH, sound sound. I know when I was once assaulted it was me Um shouting hey, that hurt and it was picked up on the camera. So not only have a camera that has sound, to be sure your sound is on. But don't forget if you're the one being assaulted, don't be afraid to talk about that as you're being assaulted. You don't want to fake anything. It really did hurt what she did. She slammed her sign into my mouth. Um, so it was a natural response,

23:47 but as soon as the magistrate saw that, they actually did write a warrant for her. Um. So I think those were the main point. Oh, I did say if we're in that act of violence thing and you've got a choice, I would always call the police first. If it's an act of violence, someone's going to get hurt. Yeah, you need to call. You need to call the police and maybe sacrifice the video, hoping your surveillance cameras capturing what's going on. Yeah, absolutely, and you know, these are just some tips that we've kind of laid out for you guys from experience. and Um, again, we don't want to instill fearing you guys, but we do know that this can be a volatile situation. We're confronting evil with truth and the devil doesn't like it and people that are living for the devil don't like it when you speak truth, and so we can expect that there's going to be some pushback. oftentimes it's just verbal, oftentimes it's just angry people, but sometimes it can get violent. Sometimes with the pro abortion people, they can take things too far, and so it is good again to have something to hold them accountable. So having a camera going and uh, you know from a couple of angles can be helpful. So hopefully this encourages you guys and hopefully you can apply some of these principles.

25:04 This is a pretty short podcast but again, hopefully just practical and helpful for you guys. As always, you can reach out to me, Daniel at Love Life Dot Org, I mentioned at the beginning of this podcast, and if you want to know what kind of camera we use, I'll certainly shoot you over a link. But you can look on Amazon. There's all kinds of that are available. Maybe you can find something better than what we use, but I'll be happy to send you over a link. If you have any other questions, anything you want to run by us, any maybe future episodes. You'd like us to cover subjects for future episodes, you can reach out to me, Daniel at Love Life Dot Org. You reach her Vicky, with a why at Love Life Dot Org, and we'd love to hear from you. But until next time, God bless God, bless you all. Give me our love, love, give me our love for gratitude.

25:56 I know it will cost me my love. Nothing's too precious. Since I met you, M M