The Crime Scene Of Police Officers

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

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.

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 the past years there have been a multitude of cases of police brutality where the officer and the victim plead two different things. One of the most notable one of this decade is the Michael Brown case in Ferguson, Missouri. The shooting of Michael Brown happened in 2014 where a Ferguson police officer fired twelve shots at an unarmed Michael Brown. Witnesses have said many different things about what Brown was doing with his hands as he approached the officer. This killing created unrest in Ferguson and many riots followed in support of Brown. If the officer had a body camera we could see exactly what Brown was doing, whether he was surrendering or reaching for a weapon. This may have prevented the riots and gave solid evidence to prove who was the culprit in the case. Many more incidents like this have happened, but this one has been the more talked about in the

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.

Body cams have the potential to provide more accurate evidence and depiction of the moment of police incidents.

Today, law enforcement agencies, or more specifically police officers, are under constant scrutiny from their peers as well as outside sources. Many of these problems arise from how the police treat and deal with these citizens. There is however a solution to these problems, which can not only improve officer safety, but can also protect anyone else that the officer encounters. The solution to this problem is officer mounted camera systems, or better known as body cameras. These body cameras capture almost everything an officer see’s as well as hears. This allows for protection against a police officer as well as protection for a citizen who was scrutinized for something he or she might have done or not. Body cameras are ever increasing in policing and have many benefit’s as well as draw backs.

A fairly common recommendation for reducing police misconduct to increase use of body cameras. By recording police-citizen encounters, police supervisors, judges, reporters, and others can get objective evidence of what happened instead of self serving hearsay. Body cameras have been the talk of many police departments among the United States. But not everyone has tried it out or used it yet, as we can see. Body cameras should be used because citizens are being innocently killed by police, officers are being falsely accused of wrongdoing, and it allows for physical proof of evidence.

The body cameras will record of what occurred and this camera will be the tool which will make it clear whether the officer was justified in using force and also it will prove the fact that the officer was correct. Everyone has a right to act in self defense. The video from the body camera presents an unbiased account of the events. This is a very important fact because nowadays when police officers make an assert of a criminal we see that most of the criminals are African American which makes them biased. The body cameras has no motive to lie and it has no stake in the outcome. It merely records the event as it happens. If a police officer acts lawfully, then he should not be blamed and accused wrongfully. The officers have the right to defend themselves and not suffer the punishment which they do not deserve. The usage of the body camera will not only provide the officers defense but it will be this strongest witness which will not be argued with. There are some drawbacks to the use of body cameras such as privacy concerns for both officers and the citizens when they encounter each other. The storage of data capturing images of innocent people, the possible tampering with the images, and the

" This incident is just one of hundreds, maybe even thousands, of cases where body cameras were used as evidence during occurrences with misconduct and unjustified police brutality. Equally, body cameras can also be useful to officers who are doing their job correctly and

Last year, there were 1,207 criminals killed by police officers alone, as in 2013, there were only 461 criminals killed by officers, this is a 261% increase in only two years. Many of these cases has been very controversial to if the criminal was rightly killed or if this is a case of police brutality. Some of the more well known cases include what happened at Ferguson or in Baltimore with Freddie Gray. These cases have not been videotaped and therefore was hard to collect evidence for a case when it went to trial, this limits the amount of trials that incorrectly sentenced. The only judicious resolution is to have body cameras on the officers, this could solve many controversial occurrences. This can also go beyond just police brutality, but with the high appearance of police officers ' everywhere, they could be available to see other incidents, that would also be seen by the cameras that the police officer may be wearing. Police officers should have body cameras attached to them to aid in preventing the grievous issue of police brutality.

What happens when there isn’t enough evidence to prove someone guilty, or when an officer isn’t taking responsibility for his or her actions? There are thousands of videos seen all over the internet and talked about on the radio about violence between an officer and another individual. Would the story of what really happened be different if the video was taken by a body camera, from a different angle compared to the one posted all over Facebook taken by an innocent bystander. With the potential that these body cameras could prevent violence, hold accountability and provide evidence, they also put restrictions on the privacy of civilians, create expenses and cause technical issues that could affect the outcome of the footage being recorded.

Some of the reasons why body cams are very beneficial is that it becomes evidence on how officers react in intense situations, evidence on any misconduct or false accusations, and etc. The one reason it is very beneficial is that it speeds up the court system. Many tax payers money is going down the drain for people who are wrongly convicted, when it could go to the body cams. It shows hard evidence that reduces pre trial plea barging and increase the right person for conviction. So many people waste so much money on these trials when it could be easily solved when the body cams of the officers show the truth of what happen on the day of any arrest that occur that day and time. In some situations, many officers get abused also and taking up the circumstance mostly a lot of people doesn’t like the cops so that false accuse him for doing something that caused him to do the “wrong doing”. With the evidence of the body cam could show that officer did nothing wrong to get abused by the civilians and could save his career and his reputation. The body cam could show accurate witnesses and get victim statements on video, so when they go to court the witness and victims wouldn’t be able to change their story. These benefits create a better and truthful system for the people and local

In the digital age everyone wants to see a video of what happened rather than eyewitness accounts. This video evidence can allow officers to monitor their own behavior while also showing t the oobleck they are a satisfactory member of the police agency. Body cameras have been adopted by many agencies and I feel that they will not be going away unless a new technology replaces the system in place. The new technology in the criminal justice field that could be adopted by law enforcement agencies is the way for officers to run facial recognition on individuals on their patrol. This facial recognition could be developed in a variety of ways from running software in the car on people who pass the vehicle.

"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal”(US Const. 1776). Thomas Jefferson wrote this in the second paragraph of the Declaration of Independence and these words are by far the most powerful and influential words in United States history. As America we need to live up to our words, nearly 60 years have gone by and we are still dealing with the widespread of violence against people of color. I believe the body-cam is the most effective and efficient way of knowing the truth. Enforcing stronger regulations to wearing the body-cam and requiring all police agencies to wear them. We the people have the right to know evidence if in your name, damaging footage or not releasing footage is not an option especially if the arrest end up in death by either the officer or the suspect.