Body Cameras

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Ever since police were employed to patrol the cities, there have been people who feel cops abuse their power. There are multiple cases in which a cop clearly abused his power, yet was not punished for it. For instance, on August 9th, 1997, police officers responded to a call from a nightclub in Brooklyn. The reason for the call was due to a large group of people outside the club fighting and causing chaos. Once on scene, the police officers began to separate the perpetrators from each other. Justin Volpe, one of the officers on scene, was swung on and hit in the head by an unidentified black man. He grabbed the first black man he saw, put him on the ground, and arrested him. The man arrested was Abner Louima, who witnesses say was not apart …show more content…
The numbers recorded from this had a great turn out. This experiment showed that when police officers wear body cameras while on duty, the amount of crime as well as complaints on officers is significantly lower than with cops who do not wearing body cameras. To be exact, the use of force by officers wearing cameras dropped 59 percent while complaints on cops dropped a staggering 87 percent from the previous year.(P Foundation) This stuck out to the public so much that even the President began to encourage police to wear body cameras. President Obama then went to Congress to ask for funding for fifty thousand body worn cameras nationwide. This study has won multiple awards in excellence in law enforcement and excellence in evidence based policing. When it comes to body worn cameras, there are multiple reasons as to why they should be an essential part of the officers’ uniforms. For one, it provides a clear image of what the officer sees from his perspective. Another reason why is that with these cameras on, people tend to behavior in a more mannered way knowing that they are being filmed. On top of this, they are relatively small, about the size of a tube of chapstick. With that, they provide an easy, non disruptive way to get clear evidence of what goes on during crime

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