The Effects Of Body Cameras On Police Officers

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

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.

Rialto, California is an example of a city with positive results from the use of body-cameras. In Rialto, police began wearing body-cameras a little less than three years ago. As a result of officers wearing body-cameras, citizens’ complaints against police officers dropped 88 percent and use of force by police officers dropped 60 percent from the previous 12 month period when body-cameras were not in use. Rialto’s police chief said, “When you put a camera on a police officer, they tend to behave a little better, follow the rules a little better. And if the citizen knows the officer is wearing a camera, chances are the citizen will behave a little better” (Lovett).

The dispute of police body cameras truly hit the media hard this week. Blasting from the headlines all citizens were aware that Michael Brown was lethally shot in Ferguson, Missouri. This prompted officers to become fortified with body cameras. This technologically progressive world that we live in today has shaped a world of tweeting, posting and uploading. It’s about time that police departments take advantage of the tools accessible to them, especially with the advancement of equipment. The move forward in technology will help to alleviate speculation on any misconduct perpetrated. There now will be hard honest evidence of any crime committed against a police officer.

    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

Moreover, to stop the crime and police brutality, body cameras would not be a bad idea if they were to be taken a step forward. Nancy La Vigne writer of “Body Cameras for Police Could Be One Smart Step” talks about supervisors monitoring the cameras in case an altercation were to happen (6). Nancy also talks about body cameras invading constitutional rights of the citizens. Vigne writes, “Body cameras will capture not just an officers actions, but also those of the citizens with whom they interact – or even individuals walking by or in the background” (Vigne). Nancy’s point is that with the body cameras and civilians being recorded, should the citizens know they are being recorded. Another solution for the body cameras to be able to work would be for the cops to have no access to the cameras.

Police brutality is a big problem, not only in the USA, but also around the world. There have been lots of effort to change this, from police departments to governments, to communities. One such effort has been the addition of body-worn cameras to the uniforms of police officers, in order to enforce accountability. This makes it so that, if there were a controversial case questioning whether the force displayed by an officer was warranted or not, there would be a video of the encounter, which is often more reliable evidence than the word of an officer or civilian. Despite the cost, mandating body-worn cameras for on-duty officers would benefit everyone involved, since there would be far less room for false or inaccurate claims made by

In February 2012, the Rialto California police department started supplying their officers with cameras they could clip on to their uniforms. At any given time, about half of their active duty officers wore these cameras. They found, in a twelve month period, that the department overall "had an 88 percent decline in the number of complaints filed against the officers". (Stross, R. 2013, April 6). They also had a 60 percent decline in the use of force by officers. They also found that officers wearing a camera were half as likely to use force as oppose to officers not wearing one. This is clear evidence that police wearing body cameras is a good

This article describes how the increase of body cameras will help reduce police misconduct by recording police-citizen encounters, and serving as evidence of what happened. This article also talks about the complications that it contains. One of the complications are the privacy concerns, many people say they don't want their police encounters to be all over social media. It also says that body cameras are not the only thing that will make officers behave, it says they also need reforms of use-of-force policy and training. Even though there are many privacy concerns experts have said that those concerns can be resolved with the right policies. This is a great article to use because it appeals to

Technological advances in the modern society have impacted in many ways the police community evolving from the beginning of fingerprinting to the detection of DNA from hair strands. Technology has been implemented in police cars as the dash cam for evidence of video proof in order to protect officers and the general public, now cameras have begun to be invoked into police officers themselves. The technological advancements of our world are constantly changing and innovating meaning police force must adapt to these changes, with that being said law enforcement has begun to implement body cameras to allow them to improve work ethic and may possibly help societies understand the workforce from the law enforcement point of view which can be shown

San Diego police need to make some changes to the police force. The most important one is about 1,000 watch officers with cameras to record their day. Officers in the city of Rialto in San Bernardino County have been wearing cameras since 2012. “Rialto Police Chief William A. Farrar, working with a Cambridge University scientist, discovered two major results: Complaints against his officers declined by 88 percent as well as Warren County Sheriff's Department started utilizing the cameras as a part of May 2014, Sheriff Martin Pace said when Armstrong declared he needed the cameras for every one of his officers.”(Hurley) Recording tools aren't only the most recent tool in police innovation, but they are getting to be a normal working system. “Video from such cameras can assume a part in protests and claims, however they can likewise be useful in court. Fewer complaints and calmer policing, said Farrago, would reduce lawsuits and expensive payouts.” (Hurley) This represents that the people in the cities with all the violence have seem to notice that body cameras might actually help and “Oakland Police Department Officer Dave Burke said “Oakland propelled the project in the 2009-2010 financial year. Officers have come to regard the cameras as a basic piece of their gear, an alternate sort of protective layer yet pretty much as basic as a shot confirmation vest. The cameras turn into a fundamental device. Everyone needs a camera,”(Prather) Burke said. Officers won't go on a mission without having one on them and lets say if one breaks they just come back and instead of getting new one they actually have someone else sub for them because they broke there's. This is important because with these videos being public they are obtainable by pretty much anyone and so the complaints will be lower because they will have everything on

In a case highlighted by The police staff an Arizona police officer had a confrontation one day on the job that ended up in a fight with the individual that he confronted. The bystanders videoed the fight but not the whole confrontation. Later on the video taken by the bystanders became viral and put the officer in a bad light with the public for using force with the person he confronted, but luckily for him he was wearing a body-worn camera that was issued to him. The video on his camera showed the whole confrontation and cleared up all the questions and false judgments of the police officer that the public had put on him. This was just one of many instances that body cameras have helped recently since they have only been in use in some areas for a short period of time now. Body worn cameras are small, compact, as well as lightweight so they do not inconvenience the user. They have been used for many reasons by many different realms of people throughout the short time they have been in production. A few police departments around the country have started implementing the use of body cameras. The idea of having all police officers wearing body cameras is up in the air without any decision set in stone as of now. There are many different organizations doing research on the use of body cameras, and the effects they have both in the positive aspects and how they help and some of the negative properties that might be brought up by both police

Any regular person will think of a camera as a device for taking memorable pictures or videos on a phone, but there are potentially other helpful ways they may be used in the future. According to an article titled “Why Police Should Wear Body Cameras ― and Why They Shouldn’t” by German Lopez, the effectiveness of body cameras for police officers may or may not be helpful in cities. However, after the ambiguous shooting of Michael Brown, the public has been in favor for body cameras to be worn by police officers to clear up misconceptions in situations like those. Police officers should be required to wear body cameras because of the multiple benefits they provide to both the officers and the people, such as holding police accountable for their actions and improving communities.