In early July, the death of a civilian under the hands of the police in the U.S. occurred. Philando Castile, who was only 32 years old, was fatally shot by police officers from the passenger seat of his girlfriend’s car. According to an ABC News article by Julia Jacobo and Enjoli, the police officer planned to stop the vehicle Castile was in because he unethically assumed that Castile and the driver were robbers based on racial profiling (par. 4). After the officer killed Castile, the driver live-streamed the aftermath scene on her Facebook account and states that the officer assumed Castile was pulling out a gun instead of his wallet and shot him four times in the process. Philando Castile was fatally shot based on uncertain and false pretences.…
Body cameras change the way police officers interact with the public for the better. One quote from journalresource.org that emphasizes my point is ¨Officers who did not wear cameras performed 9.8% more stop-and-frisks and…
Therefore, he is an expert in this field and has much experience dealing with cases regarding the consequences of police brutality due to the government not implementing body cameras. In addition, the author provides a reason to believe by uniquely expressing his viewpoint and boldly stating his opinion on the effect of body cameras on police officers and citizens. O’Mara states, “People act better when they know they're being watched -- or recorded. Cops act better, and the people they encounter on the street are more cooperative.” O’Mara references a studied commissioned by the Police Foundation in 2012 that displays statistical evidence proving few force incidents with body cameras.…
Body Cameras: Changing Communities for Eternity An unarmed black man is killed in Ferguson, a town in the St.Louis metro area by a cop, with no evidence about what happened a community is left with nothing but questions. (And With So Many Questions) Without knowing what happened the community forms it’s own beliefs then, riots the streets, robbing stores and annihilating everything in their paths. A city once filled with serenity is now a war zone that requires riot shields and tanks for survival. Little did they know at the time one small thing could have prevented this entire conflict.…
In the article, "Police Begin Wider Body Camera Use After Months of Testing” by Philip Marcelo, the author outlines how police departments across the nation are using more body cameras. In the article the author also touches upon how people view the use of body cameras. Also Marcelo also talks about unions which are not in favor of body cameras. In chicago 20 police agencies is currently issuing 2,000 body cams to its staff of 12,000 officers. Although only 17% of officers in chicago are outfitted with body cameras they plan to outfit every officer eventually.…
Body cameras will survey police behavior, thereby minimizing any inappropriate decisions. For example, in 2012, the city of Rialto outfitted all 70 of their uniformed police officers with cameras. This later on lead to an 88% reduction in public complaints against officers, and a 60% decline in officers’ use of force. This shows that police officers will act completely different and will watch their actions when they know that they are being recorded. People act differently when they know they are being watched because the presence of others encourages them to do the ‘right’ thing in order to gain social approval.…
Although many citizens may believe otherwise, it has been proven that the uses of police body cameras are beneficial to all aspects of law enforcement. In the article, “Scholar Warns Body Cams Used to Show Underrepresented in Worst Light,” freelance journalist and well renowned writer Jamaal Abdul-Alim argues that the use of police body cameras will result in the reduction of both complaints against officers and police force. Abdul-Alim supports his main argument when he presents a yearlong study on the effect police body cameras have on law enforcement that states, “Wearing BWC’s by police can reduce both officer use of force and subsequent complaints against officers” (8). Abdul-Alim then goes into the specifics when he provides the reader…
The article Police Body Cameras analyzes the possible outcomes of this idea. The article states that using body cameras could offer protection to both parties, equating to a win-win scenario. Not only would the footage “protect the public against police misconduct”, but it would also “protect the police against false accusations of abuse” (p. 8). The footage collected from the cameras would offer accurate account of incidents which have in the past been blurred with bias against police as well as the blue shield of trust which protects fellow officers from their wrongdoing with cover up stories. The same article further explains that body cameras could be the bridge of trust needed between the public and law enforcement through the feeling of security they provide.…
Police Should Wear Body Cameras Being in law enforcement isn 't a easy job. The goal of a police officer is to protect and serve the civilians. Lately, police brutality has been a hot topic of discussion due to some police officers taking their power to extreme measures when dealing with the public. Many unarmed minorities were being killed at the hands of officers all over the United States. According to the website www.mappingpoliceviolence.org, "37% of unarmed minorities were killed by police in 2015 and on 10 out of the 102 cases, the police were actually charged with the crime" (Mapping Violence, 2015).…
With police brutality increasing finding a solution is vital. Therefore police departments are trying to find solutions and body cameras is one of them. Even though privacy will be ruined, body cameras worn on police officers are one of the solutions to police brutality. Body cameras which are worn by police officers capture all activity around them within a radius of course. Therefore privacy is an issue that people might see as a problem with body…
already view them as criminals and cannot feel sympathy for what happened to them. Instead, they use their preconceptions about the victim based on their skin color rather than looking at the situation as a bigger picture. Historically, the justice system is biased towards people of color. With cases that date back to fifty years such as Emmett Till and more recent cases such as Trayvon Martin.…
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.…
Police sometimes abuse their power, and because there is no evidence, they cannot be found guilty in courts. Most public opinions are said that they want body cameras on police officers but some say that they don 't want this because of privacy in the public. Because of issues of police brutality with minorities police officers should have body cameras on at all times. As most Americans living in the United States want cameras on officers at all times for their own safety, what changes can body cameras bring to our society? " The Brown shooting and other recent police shootings in which apparently unarmed men were killed and accounts of what happened sharply differ have led to growing calls for standard use of such body cameras and "dash cams by police” (Paulson).…
Records show that the public’s trust in the police is at an all time low; therefore departments using body cameras have a greater advantage of increasing trust and improving relationships with the general public. Police body cameras benefit all parties, they provide documented objective video evidence that can be used to prosecute or exonerate a suspect (Gass). All in all, the launch of police body cameras protects civilians, and provides a record of the interactions between police officers and…
The two major roles for officers is the crime-fighting role and the order maintenance role. The difference is how crime is handled. For the crime-fighting role, their approach is more upright by battling and eliminating crime hands on. Another way to describe it can be “kicking ass and tacking names.” For the order maintenance role, they handle crime by tying to prevent before it happens.…