Benefits Of Police Body Cameras

Body cameras can hold police officers accountable for their actions, both the good and the bad. “Continuously wearing body cameras would hold police accountable for their appropriate, and inappropriate, conduct” (Buam). Also when the citizens make accusations they could pull the video from the camera and see whether the police officer did what they said they did or not. “Video recorded by body cams protect any false accusations, misconduct, or abuse

The social media and the public might want police body cam footage release but sometimes it might be to graphic or controversial. Police body cameras have been a topic since the incident with Michael Brown in august of 2014. Police shot and killed an unarmed individual in ferguson, MO, leading to many people wanting cameras on police. Whether the cameras are a good idea or not this paper will explore the facts and sides of police body cameras. Overall body cameras should be required Because they can save the lives of the innocent, keep innocent people from going to jail, and can help a case as more evidence.

Across the country a growing number of legislative departments have been debating about the pros and cons of police body cameras. This paper will further explore benefits, as well as the downfalls of using such devices. This paper will also look at specific cases and examine whether or not body cameras were helpful in various situations. It will examine if they were a deterrent in cases dealing with police brutality and domestic violence. It also looks at how they could be misused and assisting some officers in covering up their corrupt behavior.

Within recent years there has been much controversy surrounding police officers and whether or not they should be wearing body cameras to document their everyday interactions with the public. While the use of body cameras may seem to invade the public or police privacy. Police-worn body cameras will be beneficial to law enforcement and civilians all over the world. Police must be equipped with body cameras to alleviate any doubt in the effectiveness of officers. Law enforcement worn body cameras would enhance the trust of the public by keeping both the officers and the citizens accountable for their actions, providing evidence, and helping protect them from false accusations, while protecting privacy

To peep or not to peep, that is the question being asked by many regarding police body cameras in communities. The topic of police brutality is a rising issue in today’s society. Several questions have arose over the use of police body cameras and whether they are a good or bad idea. Police body cameras have has a variety of concern to many communities regarding their potential. Every city has a different trust and relationship for their police force and these concerns vary depending on the community. People have the concern regarding privacy, protection, and impact on the community and more. After researching the problems caused by Police body cameras as well as its background, the current state of the issue, and the potential solutions, it is clear that communities need to bring a solution to this situation.Such as laws, policies, rules, and more to control this new information.

Making sure that every officer has a body camera will cut down on brutality and excessive force, making it safer for the officer and the civilian or suspect. With proper tranning it will create more accountability and cost will also be cut from false accusations creating better edvidence.

First advantage in law enforcement agents wearing body cameras is to hold the officers accountable. “Holding the officers accountable, will ensure the officer adheres to policies and procedures during an encounter with victims and suspects.” Body-worn cameras are poised to help boost accountability for law enforcement and citizens and, unlike many new police technologies, the cameras share preliminary support from both law enforcement and social justice groups. Successful implementation of the cameras will require careful policies that respect and protect both the police and the public.

Body cameras in policing are still new, but more and more agencies are beginning to implement this technology into their line of work. At first police officers were very hesitant to wear these body cameras because they were afraid they would infringe themselves and give away their own privacy. Later, as body cameras were beginning to see more use in the work place, officers began to realize that these very own body cameras that they once thought would only cause themselves harm would actual prove to be useful in a variety of situations. Some of these situations can be citizen complaints, to even backing up an officers use of force. Body cameras can be the one sole thing that can give

I selected an article about police body cameras. The article cited several studies, as well as the authors’ ideas and thoughts. The article, titled Police Body Cameras, is part of the CATO Institute’s National Police Misconduct Reporting Project, and prepared by Matthew Feeney in 2015. The theme throughout the article is that the use of body cameras will reduce police misconduct. Although we all hope this is the case, we must also look at the other issues involved with the wearing of body cameras. In an effort to gain citizen buy-in and obtain their opinions, they conducted surveys. Interestingly enough, most people did not want the officers to record them, unless it was during an enforcement encounter, such as a traffic stop or arrest situation.

“In the first year after the camera 's introduction, the use of force by officers’ decline 60%, and citizens’ complaints against police fell 88%”. (Christopher Mims) The introduction of police body cameras impacted the world in many better ways than bad. But, police body cameras were introduced due to the public 's awareness to police brutality and numerous of publicity deaths which has impacted the outcome of police interactions.

Law enforcement agencies have been in a heated debate in the use of body cams by the surrounding communities because of the use of force incidents that have occurred in the media. Body cameras are the new age technology that allows law enforcement agencies to record encounters with the community. There are some positives aspects of law enforcement wearing body cams. The body cam allows the officer to interact with residents which will help to eliminate complaints about police behavior and the use of force encounters. The body cam gives video evidence of the decisions made by on-duty law enforcement in violent situations. This helps keep accountability of law enforcement and the ensure that the department and decreases liability. Because the

Recent news headlines with vivid video evidence of police brutality have inspired debates around law enforcement’s use of excessive force particularly against those in minority communities. Historically, there has been tension between minority communities and law enforcement resulting in mutual distrust. In order to dissolve these tensions and build this trust, policy initiatives have been put in place to encourage accountability and transparency. This paper will discuss the prospects that body cameras offer to help achieve transparency, accountability, and build trust. However, policies promoting transparency and accountability are not enough.

In 2015, Ready and Young did a research to explain how body cameras influence police-citizen interactions. They conclude that officers assigned to wear body cameras conducted less “stop-and-frisks” and made less arrests than officers who didn’t were the video cameras. They suggest that the reason of that was because they were more carefully and they didn’t want to take risks. They also issued more citations for ordinance violations, did more interactions with people and they perceived the camera as a helpful device while they were interacting with citizens. It seems that the camera-wearing officers and non-camera-wearing officers didn’t change their behavior when they had to give verbal warnings to citizens. The authors think that the fact of wear a camera that records all you do, can condition the behavior of the officers (The Hawthorne effect), making them act more carefully about criminal policy and procedures and being more

When police officers wear body cameras, less complaints are filed, use-of-force situations decrease, and training opportunities are gained. In 2012 the Rialto Police Department in California conducted a year long study on the use of body cameras. The department randomly assigned 27 officers to wear body cameras. After the year, the department saw a 59% decrease of use-of- force situations and a 87% decrease in complaints filed against officers (Body Worn Camera Study). In addition, body cameras provide training opportunities for officers. They do this by recording the situation, which allows the officer to know what mistakes were made. If the officer can evaluate what they did wrong, then they can fix it (White 29). Fixing mistakes improves the whole department’s performance and efficiency.

The use of excessive force by the police, particularly in the Unites States has been under much scrutiny and criticism. The implementation of police worn body cameras were introduced as a way to not only improve the safety of the police officers but most importantly to make them accountable for their own misconduct. The presence of a body cam worn by police either during an altercation or on duty, in theory should mean that there would be less of a likelihood of an officer committing any form of misconduct, as this means that the public would also be able to see the footage and the officer would and could be held liable for their actions. The reality of using body cams worn by police and their effectiveness in achieving these goals are