Police Officers And Body Cams

People should understand the reasoning for police officers to wear body cameras. There are people who are for it and against it. In order for the community to be for it, they have to come to an agreement. The compromise should be those police officers should wear body cameras for their protection and to show the community that they are telling the truth.

There has been a lot of talk lately in the news about police body cameras. Some people agree that body cameras should be used by all police officers, while others disagree and believe that they shouldn’t be used at all. There are some cons to having body cameras but all of the pros outweigh it. Police body cameras should be used in all towns no matter how small because the people will act less aggressive towards officers, they provide truthful evidence that cannot be altered with, and the videos can be stored so if something were to happen, they could be brought up and checked as sort of like a surveillance device.

To start off, police officers should be required to wear body cameras because it will reduce dishonesty on incident reports. For example, the footage of a body camera could reveal the misconduct of what actions the officer committed and officers would look foolish if they decided to file dishonest reports on the incident. This could solve many cases in the future by the use of body cameras and will reduce the amount of complaints by citizens based on what the decision was by the jury and judge. Overall, police officers should wear body cameras because it will reduce dishonesty on incidents as it could reveal the misconduct of the officers actions.

Even though body cameras are a good source of evidence: “... Ariel cautions that one innovation, no matter how positive, is unlikely to provide a panacea for a deeply rooted issue such as police legitimacy” (Use of 2). Body worn cameras do bring up the issue of police legitimacy because police can still tamper the footage or say the camera was not recording. Also with every positive impact of body worn cameras there are bad impacts as well. Most officers are required to wear their body camera’s at all times, however the article “Police Cameras” explains how: “In some cases, officers have turned off the devices, and events have not been recorded” (Police Cameras 2). Officers should not have the option to wear body worn cameras.

The topic of police wearing body cameras has been heavily debated over recently, but the major spike in discussion occurred approximately a year ago, with the fatal shooting of Michael Brown, an unarmed African-American eighteen year old in Ferguson, Missouri. There have been other shootings this past year, and many people have become outraged with the way police abuse their power and use excessive force, and now all those protesters want one thing: for all police to wear body cameras. I for one agree with them, it should be mandatory that police wear body cameras while on duty.

Should police officers wear body cameras? This topic is one of the most debated topics throughout the United States. Body cameras record the interaction of the officer with civilians. This increases accountability and transparency of the police department. In addition, body cameras allow police officers to evaluate themselves, create accurate evidence, reduce complaints against officers, and reduce the use-of-force incidents. Accurate evidence builds trust with the public, and reduce the risk of outbursts. For all these reasons, police officers should wear body cameras.

“We’re not anti-police, we’re anti-police brutality,” said Al Sharpton. It has to be understood that people fighting for justice are not against the police, they are against police brutality. Many cases that involve police using excessive force on civilians are occurring. There is not evidence being recorded because either officers do not have their body cameras or they are not turning them on. Innocent police officers and also innocent civilians are being charged guilty without proof of what actually happened in the encounter. Some officers are using their authority to pin everything on the civilian by using fake eyewitnesses and testimonies. Because of this, the public is having a hard time trusting authorities. It should be mandatory for police officers to have body cameras because it eliminates chances of them using excessive force, clears the confusion, and helps gain the public’s trust in them.

Police officers should wear body cameras because it will decrease hostility. Body cameras will help to encourage civilians to be less abusive if they are stopped by a cop for any reason. “Everyone is on their best behavior when cameras are running (Ron miller, chief of police, Topeka, Kansas police Department). For example, Keith Scott was shot by the police in North Carolina because the police said he had a gun. However, his wife and other people said he had a book, not a gun. If the police had been wearing body cameras it would have brought up the truth about the

Police should be required to wear body cams because sometimes or often the police and/or the suspect would lie about the crime that happened. Police may lie about the crime because they don’t want to get in trouble because of something that they did wrong. Also the suspect may be telling the truth and the police is just

This is an important debate to many people, because it can change crime rates and rate of police brutality dramatically. If a police officer is wearing a body camera it could save their life because the offender will know they are being watched and probably won’t try to attack the officer. As with any positives, there are negatives, like the expence of the cameras per officer as large. Also, don 't forget that they are an invasion of privacy.

Police officers should have to be required to wear body cameras to ensure the safety of the citizens and to provide evidence for a court case. Many times the police have gotten away with too many things and commit crimes that go unnoticed It’s time we put a stop to that and we make a change. With the use of body cameras that police force would be more trustworthy, they wouldn’t commit crimes, and they would be able to supply the court with undisputable evidence.

Body camera for police officers might be expensive but what is money to the deaths of innocent lives along with clearing misunderstandings for future citizens who waste their times and lives in jail for something they didn’t do and was falsely accused of doing. Having body camera for officers would improve many things drastically such as accountability, transparency, improve social image, and provide evidence of decisions made by officers in intense situations. Some might say that having police officers wearing body camera might invade their privacy but in reality the things they do behind the scene are the source of problem; if they wore body cameras then it would increase accountability, prevent violence, and improve the public views towards

Even though the benefits outweigh the negatives there are still some negatives that come with every officer being outfitted with body cameras. As pointed out earlier the start out cost and maintenance cost are extremely high, but what most don’t think about is the privacy concerns. Scholars have hinted at the fact that body cameras could infringe on peoples 4th amendment right, that being the right to privacy. One of these scholars is Marc Blitz, who makes the argument that in some cases police are called to people’s homes, and if that officer was wearing a body camera it could record details and layouts of that person’s home (Blitz, M, 2015). Lindsay Miller and Jessica Toliver, both scholars working for the Office of Community Oriented Policing

There have been various situations in which police officers have been falsely accused. Obviously not all police officers are committing misconduct, so the ones that are not would have nothing to hide while wearing a body camera. The purpose of these body cameras are to find out the the truth of what occurs during a one on one encounter with an officer and a citizen. These body cameras would force officers and citizens to be on their best behaviors because now they know they are being recorded and that tape can and will be used against them.

Officers in the united states should be required to wear surveillance cameras while on duty. In Michigan, the percentage of killing innocent citizens is 32.5 of every 100,000 in 2011. Many civilians feel that it is important that officers should be required to wear body cameras while on duty because they are killing innocent citizens for any typical reason. Officers every move should be watched while on duty to see what they are doing to citizens. In a couple years in the united stated all cities police forces will required to ear body cameras while on duty. If the law works together and fairly making sure officers are required