In April 2014, Albuquerque police officer Jeremy Dear shot and killed a 19-year-old Mary Hawkes on the grounds that she was a suspected car thief (Boetel, 2016). Surprisingly, the officer’s body camera was off, and the footage from his colleague did not give a detailed account of what happened during the incident. Despite several claims from Hawke’s family suggesting a possible police cover-up, the footage is the only evidence that can serve justice to offer tangible evidence.
It is apparent that something is not clear regarding the incidence. The police might have done something that could have tempered with the evidence. According to Boetel (2016), Ronald Chaves who is a former police department record keeper claims that the footage contains some damaged and missing information, which was deliberately tampered. Moreover, the former police officer claims that the video camera was tampered.
There is more to this story following the account provided by Chavez. In 2015, Mr. Chaves was …show more content…
(December 2016). Hawkes family files civil rights lawsuit. Albuquerque Journal. Retrieved from https://www.abqjournal.com/913529/new-lawsuit-in-apd-fatal-shooting-of-mary-hawkes.html (Academic source)
Miller, L., & Toliver, J. (2014). Implementing a body-worn camera program: Recommendations and lessons learned. Retrieved from https://www.justice.gov/iso/opa/resources/472014912134715246869.pdf (Liberal source)
White, M. D. (2014). Police officer body-worn cameras: Assessing the evidence. Washington, DC: Office of Community Oriented Policing Services.Retrieved from https://www.ojpdiagnosticcenter.org/sites/default/files/spotlight/download/Police%20Officer%20Body-Worn%20Cameras.pdf (Conservative source)
Wing, N. (2015). Here’s How Police Could End up Making Body Cameras Mostly Useless. THE HUFFING POST. Retrieved fromhttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/police-body-camera-policy_us_5605a721e4b0dd8503079683 (Liberal