Body Cameras Case Study

“There have been other high-profile instances of officers not turning on cameras. One officer involved in the shooting of a 22-year-old black man in the small city of Saratoga Springs, Utah, in September didn't turn on his body camera. A second officer involved in the incident had no camera” (Jackson). Body Cameras could help officers make their jobs easier by keeping civilians more civil. Body Cameras would help show if they unnecessary force against civilians. The more use of body cameras would help improve behaviors of officers who are using excessive force for no

Video Footage has the potential to expose officer misconduct and exonerate civilians whose actions have been falsely accused by officers. In the case of John Crawford III, going into his local Walmart, just wanting to spend quality time with his family roasting s’mores. Officers had over 200 video cameras showing he wasn’t doing anything wrong, but they refused to look at them. Even though he had an unloaded pellet gun that he picked up off the shelf. Why shoot, instead of tasering him. (Harvard Law Review N.A., 2015). Even with some witnesses around that still didn’t stop New York Police officers from using excessive force on Eric Garner. His death was recorded, and the officers were indicted. There are many cases where officers are accused of excessive force such as PEOPLE vs ATKINSON. In cases such as this, there are officers stating force was necessary and defendants saying that unnecessary force had been used. The use of cameras helps to determine without prejudice and protect all

In today 's society, one highly debatable topic is whether or not law enforcement agents should wear body cameras. Most cameras used by law enforcement agencies across the country record audio and video, therefore, the cameras see and hear nearly everything a law enforcement officer does. There are many advantages to law enforcement personnel using body cameras while on duty because it holds the officers accountable, is used to document the contact made between the officers and the victims and/or suspects, supports the “use of force” action, keeps the officers and citizens honest, and the videos can even be used for training for other officers.

    The United States criminal justice system has been having major issues with police brutality recently. According to The Washington Post, In 2015 alone almost one thousand people were shot and killed by the police. This statistic is staggering as it shows how much deadly force is being inflicted on the public. The police brutality is not only shootings as in many cases the police actions are justified in court, however, there has been recent outrage over police being overly aggressive and abusive towards the public; specifically with the African American community. This has sparked mass protest and in extreme cases riot have broken out. The public has become fed up with the police getting off with little to not punishment for their crimes due to most of the evidence being testimonies. Body cameras are the glaring solution to this problem. The give insight into what really happened during an altercation where there was an officer related shooting that left a young man dead. An example of this is a recent event in Baltimore saw a man arrested on drug charges and got held in jail for months. However the arresting officer was wearing a body camera. Police body cameras start to record for the previous thirty seconds prior to activation. When the footage was reviewed it saw the officer plant evidence at the scene to incriminate the suspect. This led to the release of the accused suspect and the officers are under review (Hendry, E. R., & Barajas, J., 2017, para. 4). Now if the arresting officer did not have that body camera an innocent man would be in jail on drug charges that he had nothing to do with. These are situations that could be happening more than the

Do you think cops do their job the right way? Do you think cops could do their job better? In recent years more and more police brutalities have occurred from the death of Trayvon Martin in Sanford, FL on 2012 to the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO on 2014. Many people now do not respect or trust the cops anymore because of the way that cops have been doing their job. What is one way that the cops can gain the respect of the people again. What is one tool that could help capture what a cop does on duty. Body cameras on cops should be enforced in America because the camera can prove which person is innocent and which person is guilty in a court of law, body cameras offer a safer community, and it keeps the cop accountable of the

The body camera has become a popular choice amongst police departments worldwide. The situation of the scenario, and if the officer or suspect acted in the right can be determined from past footage. The cause of the body camera has been the allegations against officers for how they acted in certain situations, as well as for how the suspect acted during the callout. The effect has been officers being terminated due to lack of integrity or situational awareness, as well as officer safety. Suspects have also been convicted of false accusations against a police officer, as well as crimes presented in court, from fights, to officer involved shootings. The body worn camera has benefited both police officers and the general public.

Body cameras will prevent officers from using to much unneeded force. In the "SIRS DATABASE--At Issue: Police and Body Cameras" it states that. "In the past several years, wearable video cameras for police officers have also been issued as standard

With today’s advanced technology, police body cameras have proven to be very useful. They are crucial in putting an end to unnecessary police misconduct. In 2012, the Rialto Police Department in California implemented police body cameras and recorded the outcome. The results showed that “the number of complaints filed against officers fell by 88 percent compared with the previous 12 months. Use of force by officers fell by almost 60 percent over the same period” (Lovett). Without a doubt, police body cameras do the trick to prevent potentially dangerous situations from occurring. As William A. Farrar, the Rialto police chief once stated, “When you put a camera on a police officer, they tend to behave a little better, follow the rules a little better. And if a citizen knows the officer is wearing a camera, chances are the citizen will behave a little better.” I strongly agree with this statement because if the interaction between the officer and the citizen is being recorded, neither of the two will want to behave badly. The citizen knows that their bad behavior could result in consequences and the officer knows that their misconduct could result in punishment or even the loss of their job. The cameras record every detail that can be looked back on if there was a complaint filed against the officer that was wearing it. Clearly, police body

There are instances people don’t cooperate because of the trust issues between them. Hopefully the cameras can reestablish the connection between police and citizens. Soon they may realize this task will much harder to complete. Some may say it a breach of privacy, “particularly in instances in which encounters with police occur in a private home.” (Police Body Cameras) This is one of the main concerns with body cameras, nobody wants to be film inside his/her own home. Also the cameras are expensive at a large scale. “Body cameras can cost in the range of $100 upward to $1,500...” (Ignasiak) It’s not rational idea to issue all officers with cameras the cost will be too

Before the creation of these cameras, complaints about police officers were numerous. By using these cameras, studies have shown that they enhance officers’ behaviors and have also helped reduce citizen complaints. “They found that the ‘officers wearing the cameras had 87.5 percent fewer incidents of use of force and 59 percent fewer complaints than the officers not wearing the cameras,’ the report states”

According to the article “Why police should wear body cameras” by Michelle. M chief, William A. Farrar said to the New York Times “When you put a camera on a police officer, they tend to behave a little better, follow the rules a little better, and if a citizen knows the officer is wearing a camera, chances are the citizen will behave a little better” (MAR, 2014). In other words, the camera will minimize the amount of complaints about officers that use unnecessary force or inappropriate behavior from both sides, the officer and the citizen. If anything happens, the camera will have everything recorded on tape. Americans say most police officers don't do a good job and they routinely lie to serve their own interests.

Evansville Police say body camera video proves one of its officers did not act improperly during a traffic stop. It stems from an incident in August that involved former city councilwoman Stephanie Brinkerhoff-Riley.

For many years, numerous accounts of police brutality have gone unknown or inaccurately recorded due to lack of eye witnesses or imprecise written statements. Criminal charges have been dropped or dismissed because there wasn’t enough evidence proving that the suspect committed the crime. Police body cameras are beneficial and helpful for police officers and citizens, to prevent instances of police brutality, monitor the interaction between police officers and citizens and forcing law enforcement to take more accountability for their actions.

At first glance, it might be compelling to correlate the cutback in use-of-force incidents and complaints adjacent to the police with the introduction of body cameras. Body-worn camera video provides quantitative data on rates and types of confrontation that may explain imbalances in use of force between individual officers. During these studies, the experimental period was approximately one year, which was held during 2012-2013. Table 3: use of force, citizens’ complaints, and police public raw figures exhibit group assignment experimental shifts or control shifts was the independent variable, while the number of use of force incidents and the number of citizens’ complaints was used as the dependent variable. The table provides information

With the rise of anti-police groups and police surveillance groups, like one called copwatch, the need for police accountability is at an all time high. The best way to hold these officers accountable is through mandated body cameras. Seeing a video of a police officer tackling someone can be very one-sided. It is almost like reading tone into a text; you create what one wants to hear. When someone wants to “hear” that a police officer was attacking a citizen, then that is how they are going to tell someone when they show the video. With body cameras, viewers get to see the whole story and the whole conversation occur. In an excerpt from “Through The Looking Glass House” the author talks about the way people perceive things and