Recently in the American culture there has been an ongoing problem in the last few years with police brutality and the killing of citizens seen by video, through social media, or by protest. From Ferguson, to James Blake the tennis star, even going back to Trayvon Martin, or the young girl of color that was thrown from her chair by the police officer, police brutality is an ongoing issue here in the United States and police body cameras is a possible solution. What is a police body camera? From the Macmillan Dictionary it states that a police body camera is a video recording system worn on the body especially by law enforcement officers. With this camera law enforcement 's can wear it and interact with the public when the police are on duty.
…show more content…
One case in South Carolina a police officer was caught lying about shooting and killing Walter Scott, but when a bystander 's video was released it was shown that the officer had lied. Because of the Walter Scott case police accountability is taken seriously. The officer Slager’s dashboard camera only told one half of the story. The public became furious in South Carolina and the Governor, Nikki Haley had signed a regulation making it mandatory that all police officers must wear a body camera in the state of South Carolina, but the policy states that recording taken by the cameras will not be subject to the state 's open record laws. This means the media and the public cannot ask for the body camera video or audio because it is protected under the South Carolina’s Freedom of Information Act law, therefore police enforcements are allowed to release the footage only if they want to. Giving power to police on how to use the body camera and whether or not they want to release footage can possibly cause harm. The ACLU advocacy counsel Chad Marlowe wrote, “ The implementation of sound police body camera programs is just a small piece of that effort, but if done right, it will likely be an important and valuable step in the right direction.” To summarize this statement he is saying that body cameras can provide little help, but if the cameras are fully used the right way that is …show more content…
(Feeney, Matthew)
Another policy proposed by Jay Stanley of the ACLU on police controlling when to turn on and off their body cameras: should require that a police 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. That would include stops, frisks, searches, arrests, consensual interviews and searches, enforcement actions of all kinds, and any encounter that becomes in any way hostile.
The issue with the with the policy is what if the officer does not have the camera on during an encounter during a confrontation with a civilian. In 2013 Jay wrote if police enforcements already have policies and fail to turn on should be
One case in South Carolina a police officer was caught lying about shooting and killing Walter Scott, but when a bystander 's video was released it was shown that the officer had lied. Because of the Walter Scott case police accountability is taken seriously. The officer Slager’s dashboard camera only told one half of the story. The public became furious in South Carolina and the Governor, Nikki Haley had signed a regulation making it mandatory that all police officers must wear a body camera in the state of South Carolina, but the policy states that recording taken by the cameras will not be subject to the state 's open record laws. This means the media and the public cannot ask for the body camera video or audio because it is protected under the South Carolina’s Freedom of Information Act law, therefore police enforcements are allowed to release the footage only if they want to. Giving power to police on how to use the body camera and whether or not they want to release footage can possibly cause harm. The ACLU advocacy counsel Chad Marlowe wrote, “ The implementation of sound police body camera programs is just a small piece of that effort, but if done right, it will likely be an important and valuable step in the right direction.” To summarize this statement he is saying that body cameras can provide little help, but if the cameras are fully used the right way that is …show more content…
(Feeney, Matthew)
Another policy proposed by Jay Stanley of the ACLU on police controlling when to turn on and off their body cameras: should require that a police 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. That would include stops, frisks, searches, arrests, consensual interviews and searches, enforcement actions of all kinds, and any encounter that becomes in any way hostile.
The issue with the with the policy is what if the officer does not have the camera on during an encounter during a confrontation with a civilian. In 2013 Jay wrote if police enforcements already have policies and fail to turn on should be