I am not fond of people suing for a living either but I also believe in the Constitution and these folks are standing up for it by what they are doing. There are even a few that claim that they have never filed suit but who really knows without some lengthy investigating of court records. One channel that does a great job is this one, here is one their audits. They actually use the police body camera footage of the stops and grade both the police and the "auditor". Watch this one

On the positive side though it shouldn't take many suits or settlements for a city or county to figure out they have a "problem" with their departments. These guys are really risking there lives in some cases knowing now what I know and will be discussing in my next Dash. That information is really scary.
You are wise to keep the camera on when talking with any government employee, even if they don't have a badge and a gun. Code enforcement people are some of the worst when it comes to being a pain in the ass.