Body Worn Cameras Pros And Cons

The world tends to change and adapt whenever technology devices or special tools to progress. For example, the use of drones has been used for many decades. This technology device was mainly used in the military back in the 1930s that substitutes a pilot from an aircraft (Reuters, 2015, p. 2). A person(s) controls this drone as it flies in the sky for many reason such as; aerial views, spying tactics, and now for personal usage. There are many advantages and disadvantage of using a drone; whether it is for personal or profession usage. First, an agency needs to be mindful of who, what, when, where, and how to use them when preventing crime or using them for surveillance. One needs to make sure police officers do not break or interfere with …show more content…
What are the benefits? Body worn cameras can be used for safety measures and used to display possible evidence in court. Also, in any incident that may occur when an officer is dealing with a possible suspect. According to NIJ (2012), body-worn cameras “offers significant advantages in keeping officers safe, enabling situational awareness and providing evidence for trial” (p. 1). Nonetheless, there are some major concerns about these body-worn cameras such as proper usage. NIJ (2012) stated that “a major issue with the use of BWCs is a lack of technical standards and operational standards for protocols and procedures. Without such standards in place, practitioners lack adequate information to select the proper system that meets their requirements” (p. 1). With that being said, police agencies must place “policies, procedures, training and feedback mechanisms in place and used prior to even a pilot deployment is exceedingly important. If an agency considers all aspects of deployment, the project will be effective, efficient, and maintain the agency’s and officer’s integrity”. Again, privacy is a concern, yet it is imperative that privacy rights are researched before a police agency invest in body worn camera systems (NIJ, 2013, p. 8,11). In addition, privacy acts are not the only thing that can jeopardize a case, however, misuse of body worn cameras can bring consequences to the police officer, the department, and the case. Before adapting to this type of technology, departments should mandate rules and regulations when dealing with body worn cameras and how not to damage evidence. According to NIJ (2012), “the best policy, as with any physical evidence, is to always guard the integrity of the evidence, and ensure policies and procedures maintaining a strict chain-of- custody are followed” (p. 10). Furthermore, this product can be