Chest Cameras Research Paper

Police Brutality and Chest Cameras In recent years, we’ve noticed an increase in claims of police brutality. However, without any hard evidence, they’re just that: claims. With such controversial events such as the Mike Brown, Eric Garner, and John crawford shootings, police brutality and racism has become more and more in the forefront of the public eye. Some have suggested improvements and precautions for the police to take, such as chest cams in addition to already existing dash cams. Are police brutality rates really increasing, or are documented police brutality incidents increasing? With an estimated “4.6 billion mobile phones [were] in use at any moment in 2010” and “More than one billion mobile phones [are] equipped with cameras” (Costello, Rachel) the chances to record and document police brutality has become much easier, and therefore, has more physical documentation than in years past. According to expert, …show more content…
With no privacy or use guidelines yet in place, some are weary of the use of these cameras, “Without strong policies …departments could lose the public 's trust. The public needs to know cameras aren 't only being turned on when it 'll help officers.” ("Police Body Cameras Raise Privacy Concerns"). Not only is the general public weary, but officers themselves are afraid of getting caught saying or doing something that would risk their job--so much so that they started breaking off antennas of the cameras at one police department, “but mysteriously the recorders stopped working...officers were purposefully breaking off the antennas on their recorders to disable them” (Hu, Elise). With this kind of activity going on, certain privacy and use guidelines need to be put in place to protect both the officer and the suspect(s) from any possibly embarrassing video footage, as well as ensuring the proper documentation of each