Is it a waste of money? Does it prevent violence? The reason why police body cameras has been pushed to the courts is because of the Ferguson shooting in Missouri. August 9, 2014 Michael Brown an unarmed black teenager was shot and killed by Darren Wilson, a white police officer. But little over a week later, the failure of a Staten Island grand jury to indict NYPD Officer Daniel Pantaleo for his fatal use of a chokehold on Eric Garner, yet another unarmed black man, further catalyzed the movement particularly because this deadly encounter was captured on film by nearby onlookers. The outrage over Officer Pantaleo’s nonindictment presents an interesting challenge for reformers. Prior to the grand jury’s decision, both protestors and politicians were calling for police departments across the country to outfit their officers with body cameras. There are many issues with police body cameras but the main three issue are camera expenses, police accountability, and prevent violence. Going back to talking about the 1990s and the police in car cameras, the US justice department awarded over 20 million in grants to local police departments so they could purchase and install in-car camera systems. It’s a bit similar to today how the cameras were purchased, it was purchased with the US Justice Department. They announced it is providing $20 million to police departments for body cameras, the first installment in a three-year program budgeted at $75 million. Of the $20 million grant announced, the Justice Department said $17 million will be devoted to "the purchase of body-worn cameras, $2 million for training and technical assistance and $1 million for the development of evaluation tools to study best practices. This was similar to how it was with the in car cameras, agencies had to train and install cameras. Some people would say this is a waste of money and that money could go to better things in the criminal justice system. The question is do police cameras really work? Well in 2012 Rialto California started supplying officers with camera they could clip on to their uniforms. At any time during their shift they had to wear the camera. They found that in one year the department overall had an 88 percent decline in complaints filed against offices and a 60 percent decline in the use
Is it a waste of money? Does it prevent violence? The reason why police body cameras has been pushed to the courts is because of the Ferguson shooting in Missouri. August 9, 2014 Michael Brown an unarmed black teenager was shot and killed by Darren Wilson, a white police officer. But little over a week later, the failure of a Staten Island grand jury to indict NYPD Officer Daniel Pantaleo for his fatal use of a chokehold on Eric Garner, yet another unarmed black man, further catalyzed the movement particularly because this deadly encounter was captured on film by nearby onlookers. The outrage over Officer Pantaleo’s nonindictment presents an interesting challenge for reformers. Prior to the grand jury’s decision, both protestors and politicians were calling for police departments across the country to outfit their officers with body cameras. There are many issues with police body cameras but the main three issue are camera expenses, police accountability, and prevent violence. Going back to talking about the 1990s and the police in car cameras, the US justice department awarded over 20 million in grants to local police departments so they could purchase and install in-car camera systems. It’s a bit similar to today how the cameras were purchased, it was purchased with the US Justice Department. They announced it is providing $20 million to police departments for body cameras, the first installment in a three-year program budgeted at $75 million. Of the $20 million grant announced, the Justice Department said $17 million will be devoted to "the purchase of body-worn cameras, $2 million for training and technical assistance and $1 million for the development of evaluation tools to study best practices. This was similar to how it was with the in car cameras, agencies had to train and install cameras. Some people would say this is a waste of money and that money could go to better things in the criminal justice system. The question is do police cameras really work? Well in 2012 Rialto California started supplying officers with camera they could clip on to their uniforms. At any time during their shift they had to wear the camera. They found that in one year the department overall had an 88 percent decline in complaints filed against offices and a 60 percent decline in the use