With the seemingly increase of police brutality, it can be understandable why citizens want police to wear body cameras. I personally agree with these notions and it has even been proven in various studies. Some people believe that body cameras would not help because then they would be forced to get a ticket if they, say, ran a red light instead of having the officer getting them off with just warning. However, I think that benefits of the cameras most certainly outweigh the negative aspects. This specifically includes officers becoming more self-aware of their actions in public, getting a recording of what happened in a violent encounter, and the increased “transparency and improve[d] relations between police and the communities they are supposed
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It should not be fair for an individual to be locked up for a crime they did not commit or if they got a sentence that was not proportional to the crime that was committed. Additionally, I believe that it is vital for police to also be held accountable for all of their misdemeanors, from shooting unarmed people to going down the “slippery slope”. For example, according to the Harvard Law Review, a male would have “spent several years of his life in a prison cell while the officers answered to no one for their actions” if a dashcam had no captured the officers’ actions. The said actions included the officers holding the male at shotgun, smashing the car’s side window with a baton and “rip[ed] the innocent man from his car[,] and throw[s] him on the ground” (1798). Without holding guilty police responsible, the trust between the community and police will be lost and the system will become corrupt. It would allow any officers to be able to bypass jail and retain their job. It is detrimental to the purity and loyalty of police officers that body cameras are used to create an “unambiguous account of police-civilian encounters” (Harvard, 1800). To continue from my previous statement, I think that body cameras should be integrated into the police systems and be used constantly. With them, police should be able to focus on their behavior, such as …show more content…
They would be able to provide evidence to jury courts and disrupt any discrepancies an officer is trying to make between their account and what actually happened. I personally think that they are important for that part of the system. They could prevent people from getting unnecessary jail time and even provide extra facts that were not originally found at a crime scene. It would also be an advantage for the Chief of Police to look into any misconducts that are occurring lower in the ranks or give a promotion to an officer who has been exceptionally loyal to the system and the community. For example, in a study conducted in Mesa, AZ, police officers that wore the body cameras were more likely to give out tickets and citations because they were “concerned that they may be reprimanded for not writing tickets when video evidence showed that a citizen violated an ordinance or traffic law”. The officers are essentially at risk for an “abuse of authority” and “neglect of duty” (Ready). Additionally, the research showed that while the body camera officers did issue more citations and encounters with citizens, the group without of the cameras made more stop-and-frisk searches and arrests for misdemeanors and felonies. The body camera officers were also “much more likely to perceive the cameras as helpful relative to control” (Ready). With these points in mind, I fail to see why body cameras would not be helpful to
It should not be fair for an individual to be locked up for a crime they did not commit or if they got a sentence that was not proportional to the crime that was committed. Additionally, I believe that it is vital for police to also be held accountable for all of their misdemeanors, from shooting unarmed people to going down the “slippery slope”. For example, according to the Harvard Law Review, a male would have “spent several years of his life in a prison cell while the officers answered to no one for their actions” if a dashcam had no captured the officers’ actions. The said actions included the officers holding the male at shotgun, smashing the car’s side window with a baton and “rip[ed] the innocent man from his car[,] and throw[s] him on the ground” (1798). Without holding guilty police responsible, the trust between the community and police will be lost and the system will become corrupt. It would allow any officers to be able to bypass jail and retain their job. It is detrimental to the purity and loyalty of police officers that body cameras are used to create an “unambiguous account of police-civilian encounters” (Harvard, 1800). To continue from my previous statement, I think that body cameras should be integrated into the police systems and be used constantly. With them, police should be able to focus on their behavior, such as …show more content…
They would be able to provide evidence to jury courts and disrupt any discrepancies an officer is trying to make between their account and what actually happened. I personally think that they are important for that part of the system. They could prevent people from getting unnecessary jail time and even provide extra facts that were not originally found at a crime scene. It would also be an advantage for the Chief of Police to look into any misconducts that are occurring lower in the ranks or give a promotion to an officer who has been exceptionally loyal to the system and the community. For example, in a study conducted in Mesa, AZ, police officers that wore the body cameras were more likely to give out tickets and citations because they were “concerned that they may be reprimanded for not writing tickets when video evidence showed that a citizen violated an ordinance or traffic law”. The officers are essentially at risk for an “abuse of authority” and “neglect of duty” (Ready). Additionally, the research showed that while the body camera officers did issue more citations and encounters with citizens, the group without of the cameras made more stop-and-frisk searches and arrests for misdemeanors and felonies. The body camera officers were also “much more likely to perceive the cameras as helpful relative to control” (Ready). With these points in mind, I fail to see why body cameras would not be helpful to