According to Washington Post journalist Ilya Somin, “When police officers harm innocent civilians or otherwise abuse the public they are supposed to serve, that too is even worse than an otherwise comparable crime committed by an ordinary citizen.”12 When a new police officer is sworn in he is to live by the motto outlined by the police department, to protect and serve. Police officers are meant to help the public, and keep citizens safe. The public trusts officers to arrest criminals, find murderers, and keep every civilian on the streets safe. Sometimes officers forget or ignore their roles, and can become more of a threat to the public than a beacon of safety. In the recent years police officers have been seen hurting more civilians than
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According to journalist Eileen Sullivan, “In some cases strapping cigarette pack-sized cameras to officers’ uniforms has been framed as a way to curb police brutality and stem deteriorating trust in law enforcement.”17 Oftentimes police officers are put into a situation where they have too much power, and they use excessive force on suspects. It has been recently brought to light that police officers have been seen using excessive force, or needlessly harming citizens. A recent event that has brought police brutality into the public eye is an incident in South Carolina. A school resource officer assaulted a student, using an unnecessary amount of force, and was soon terminated for his actions. “[Officer Ben Fields tells a student] ‘Come on, I’m going to get you up,’ before picking her up from the desk and throwing her to the floor. As he continues to try to restrain her, she is thrown several feet across the classroom as the officer tells her repeatedly to put her hands behind her back.”18 This kind of violent show of police power is unacceptable, but is far too common in the modern police force. The main reason for the heighted amount of police brutality is the fact that if the officer is not seen, he is not caught and punished for his actions. A police officer can sometimes do whatever he wants to a civilian as long as he is not seen doing it. The Student Resource Officer, Ben Fields, was fired because of a classroom full of witnesses and an amateur video, but a cell phone video is not always enough to convict an officer. When there is no way an officer could be seen and disciplined, all accountability is lost. The best solution to the rise of police brutality is body cameras. An officer wearing a body camera cannot get away with an unnecessary use of force when he is being recorded by a camera. Several
According to journalist Eileen Sullivan, “In some cases strapping cigarette pack-sized cameras to officers’ uniforms has been framed as a way to curb police brutality and stem deteriorating trust in law enforcement.”17 Oftentimes police officers are put into a situation where they have too much power, and they use excessive force on suspects. It has been recently brought to light that police officers have been seen using excessive force, or needlessly harming citizens. A recent event that has brought police brutality into the public eye is an incident in South Carolina. A school resource officer assaulted a student, using an unnecessary amount of force, and was soon terminated for his actions. “[Officer Ben Fields tells a student] ‘Come on, I’m going to get you up,’ before picking her up from the desk and throwing her to the floor. As he continues to try to restrain her, she is thrown several feet across the classroom as the officer tells her repeatedly to put her hands behind her back.”18 This kind of violent show of police power is unacceptable, but is far too common in the modern police force. The main reason for the heighted amount of police brutality is the fact that if the officer is not seen, he is not caught and punished for his actions. A police officer can sometimes do whatever he wants to a civilian as long as he is not seen doing it. The Student Resource Officer, Ben Fields, was fired because of a classroom full of witnesses and an amateur video, but a cell phone video is not always enough to convict an officer. When there is no way an officer could be seen and disciplined, all accountability is lost. The best solution to the rise of police brutality is body cameras. An officer wearing a body camera cannot get away with an unnecessary use of force when he is being recorded by a camera. Several