Will police body cameras really help improve the safety of the public and help law enforcement officers with their duties? Police Departments all over the United States are adding a new item to their belts; body cameras. These body cameras are supposed to record all interactions that a police officer has with another individual. This new technology is going to hopefully add a new pinch of justice to the people. The public will have evidence of the right and wrong doings of police officers.…
Many cases arise where police or the civilian can not recall certain events or specific details that occurred in the situation and the police body cameras will solve that and provide a valuable extra piece of information for misconduct situations. The investment may prove to be costly, but can end up saving law enforcement time and money because body cameras can prevent court trials based on misinformation. The body cameras can help strengthen and enhance transparency and accountability in the police department. Police can also feel further protected from the possibility of false complaints. (Ferrarin, par.…
This however could be contradictory if the officer does not tell or report the whole story. Without clear limits, body worn cameras may become just another tool for law enforcement rather than a mechanism for police accountability. Several studies on police body cameras have encouraging…
Police have violated laws many times. One way to prevent this is, body cameras. There are many things needed to be known first. Some things that need to be known is, the problems they’ll solve, the price, and who currently wears them. There are many things body cameras can solve.…
To prevent cases like these people have brought up the idea of police officers wearing body cameras while on duty to record every incident they encounter while on duty. These body cameras can help by preventing violence, and help with accountability, but also bring up the issue about privacy. First, the use of body cameras can help prevent violence between the police officer and the victim. When a victim gets stopped by the police officers they are…
The cameras have many positive features to them a few of them would be that the videos give solid evidence to hold people accountable for their actions, people are more aware of their actions when the cameras are present so there have been fewer complaints made, also, the use of force has also decreased since police have started using the cameras. One of the biggest things that body cameras offer is the video evidence that they give. With this evidence the officers and the civilians can be held accountable for their own actions. Before the body cameras, there were dash cams.…
Throughout the past 10 years there has been many talks on whether the police should be required to wear body cameras. Throughout all the research and studies regarding these cameras, these have been many pros to body cams but there have also been cons and many challenges to implementing this system in police forces throughout the country. Many different police stations have done experiments with these cameras and have all shown very positive feedback. Regardless of the amount of work necessary to implement these cameras, it should be necessary for officers to wear these body cameras because they have the potential to save lives. To go along with that, police should be forced to wear these body cameras because they have the potential to save lives, give better representation than hearing a testimony, and make suspects less likely to run or attack an officer because everything they do is caught on camera.…
With that being said, concrete and strong restrictions need to be constructed to ensure the cameras cannot be manipulated. “Policies should require that an officer activate his or her camera when responding to a call for service or at the initiation of any other law enforcement or investigative encounter between a police officer and a member of the public” (Stanley). A cop should be reprimanded when he/she fails to wear a body camera to record. According to the article, “During the first year after the cams were introduced, the use of force by police officers reportedly declined 60% and complaints from citizens against law enforcement decreased by 88%” (Einvestigator).…
Everybody has a cell phone with cameras these days, many will crop or edit the video to show what they want to be seen, with body cameras you get the whole scene, not just bits and pieces of it. The use of body or in-car cameras will also help support and build your case. My office just recently purchased body cameras for all of our deputies and the jail staff. My theory on it is if you are doing your job correctly, then…
Body cameras for me personally is not an issue. I was pulled over by a police officer with a body camera recently. It happened at a McDonalds around 11’o clock at night in my hometown Reading, PA. As I was leaving the drive thru and making a left out of McDonalds I hear and see red and blue lights behind me. I pull over and shortly he comes over and introduces himself and his body camera.…
Christepher Thomas Ms. Upson English 363 10 May 2016 Enforcing the Laws through Body Cameras There has been many incidents involving police using excessive force. According to Nick Wing, the senior editor for Huffington Post,states, more than half of the incidents using superfluous force had dropped over the year when using body cameras (1). Implementing body cameras can change how the world is today. Police officers should be required to wear body cameras because it will create equal opportunities for everyone, create a safer environment, and police officers cannot show racial bias towards anyone.…
You make two very good points with the cons. The initial cost alone for every officer in every state would be a small fortune. Furthermore, can you imagine the cost in replacement cameras every time an officer is involved in a physical confrontation with the possibilities of the camera/equipment to be damaged? Definitely something to consider with cost as well. Inconsistency of cameras within the states is also an important issue.…
It is virtually impossible nowadays for a person to watch the news without a new headline popping up that involves a police officer and an unarmed person who is shot and killed out of “self defense.” The increase in the number of deaths by law enforcement has sparked controversy throughout the United States, and has changed the way a majority of the public views “lawful” and “justified” police force. Because of the rising death rate, body-mounted police cameras have been the talk of the nation. Recently, the issue became so apparent that President Obama issued a proposal for 263 million dollars to be put toward new police training and body cameras throughout the country (Feeney). Various people believe that if officers were required to wear body cameras, fewer deaths would occur and more police officers would be held accountable for their actions.…
I agree with allowing every officer the use of a body camera and the reason being that the pros of using the cameras stated above has outweighed the cons. Stated in the article “To date, little research is available to help law enforcement executives decide whether and how to implement the use of body-worn cameras in their departments”. An experiment was conducted at the Rialto (CA) PD, an agency that serves a population of 100,000 citizens. The end of this experiment resulted with the data showing that the likelihood of force being used was roughly doubled when cameras were not deployed, so in conclusion, resulting positively. Complaints dropped about eighty-eight percent and the research team conducting the experiment found many things in…
When the body cameras were first introduced claims of police misconduct dropped significantly. Rhonda Swan states, “ In the first year after Rialto Calif., police started wearing body cameras, the use of force by officers declined almost 60 percent, and citizen complaints against police fell 88 percent.” When police are watched they may feel as though they must be on their best behavior because if they make a unacceptable move, or use excessive force their higher ups will find out. New England College says that there is “ a sense of accountability for both police officers and the citizens they interact with. If encounters are being recorded for future review- and potential evidence both sides are more likely to put on their best behavior, proponents say.”…