Police Body Cameras: Top 3 Pros and Cons

A North Charleston, South Carolina, police officer wears a body camera in Mar. 2016.
Source: Ryan Johnson, "St. Paddy's Day in North Charleston – 2016," Artistic Eatables, Mar. 12, 2016

  • Overview
  • Pro/Con Arguments
  • Discussion Questions
  • Accept Action

Police body cameras (also called body-worn cameras) are small cameras worn on a law enforcement officer's chest or caput to record interactions between the officer and the public. The cameras take a microphone to capture audio and internal information storage to save video footage for later review. [37] [41]

According to the Bureau of Justice Aid, "[t]he video and audio recordings from BWCs [body-worn cameras] can exist used by law enforcement to demonstrate transparency to their communities; to document statements, observations, behaviors, and other testify; and to deter unprofessional, illegal, and inappropriate behaviors past both police force enforcement and the public." [41] Police body cameras are in use around the world from Australia and Uruguay to the Britain and South Africa. [19] [32] [35] [36]

Later on the law shooting death of Michael Dark-brown on Aug. 9, 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri, President Barack Obama requested $263 one thousand thousand to fund body camera programs and police grooming on December. one, 2014. [38] [46] As a result the Department of Justice (DOJ)  implemented the Body-Worn Photographic camera Policy and Implementation Program (BWC-PIP). Betwixt financial year (FY) 2015 and FY 2019, the BWC-PIP has given over 493 awards worth over a collective $seventy million to law enforcement agencies in 47 states, DC, Puerto Rico, and the U.s. Virgin Islands. Agencies in Maine, Montana, and North Dakota accept non been awarded federal torso photographic camera funding. [40] [42] [43] [44]

Equally of Oct. 29, 2018, the nearly recently available information, 36 states and DC had specific legislation about the use of law body cameras. At that fourth dimension, some other four states had pending body camera legislation. [45]

On June vii, 2021, U.s.a. Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, JD, directed the ATF, DEA, FBI and US Marshals "to develop and submit for review" body-worn camera policies in which agents wear cameras during "(1) a pre-planned attempt to serve an abort warrant or other pre-planned arrest, including the anticipation of fugitives sought on state and local warrants; or (ii) the execution of a search or seizure warrant or order." [63]

Should Police Officers Wear Body Cameras?

Pro ane

Police force body cameras improve police force accountability and lower reports of police misconduct.

Law torso cameras provide visual and audio bear witness that can independently verify events. In Texas, a police officer was fired, charged with murder, and sentenced to a $x,000 fine and 15 years in prison house later on torso-worn camera footage contradicted his initial statement in the Apr. 2017 shooting of an unarmed youth. [12] [48]

In Baltimore, Maryland, an officer was convicted of fabricating evidence and misconduct in role later on being caught by body-worn cameras planting fake drug bear witness.[14] [49]

A RAND study found that use of strength past constabulary officers dropped if the officers wearing cameras kept the cameras recording for the officers' whole shift. [471] In Miami-Dade County, Florida, researchers constitute a 19% reduction in police officers using physical force against citizen resistance, and civil cases against the police section for use of force dropped 74%. [50]

In Phoenix, Arizona, complaints confronting officers wearing cameras decreased 23%, while complaints against officers non wearing cameras increased 10.6%. [thirteen]

The cameras as well protect police officers confronting false accusations of misconduct. In San Diego, California, the utilize of body cameras provided the necessary evidence to exonerate law officers falsely accused of misconduct. The number of severe misconduct allegations deemed simulated increased 2.four% with trunk camera footage, and the number of officers exonerated for less severe allegations related to bear, courtesy, procedure, and service increased 6.v%. [xi]

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Pro 2

Police torso cameras are a powerful tool in domestic violence cases.

When an officer wearing a camera arrives at a domestic violence scene, the photographic camera is able to record the immediate aftermath of the attack, including injuries the victim has suffered, likewise every bit victim statements that may be more honest than subsequently statements once victims think emotional and fiscal ties to their abusers. [51] Victims may also feel more secure in their testimony with video evidence backing upwards their statements. [52]

Elliott Knetsch, JD, Prosecutor for the City of Burnsville, Minnesota, whose police force department uses body-worn cameras, stated, "When the cops are called and come through the door, the victim is very happy and relieved to run across them. They feel safety. They tell the officeholder what happened. That argument given right at that moment is more than likely to be the truth than what comes out fifty-fifty one-half an hour later, when the implications of what has happened commencement to set in." [51]

In the six months since torso cameras were deployed in Burnsville, police recorded video for nigh every domestic violence case, something former Chief Deputy of the Dakota County Attorney's Role, Phil Prokopowicz, JD, found useful. He stated that photographic camera footage "tin can exist influential in resolving the instance in terms of negotiations. The defendant gets to see the act and know what will be displayed in forepart of the jury. The documenting of those first moments is very critical to those types of cases, every bit well as whatsoever admissions that may occur every bit officers are entering." [51]

Officers in the Great britain and Queensland, Commonwealth of australia echoed this benefit, stating some abusers plead guilty considering they knew there was video footage show against them.[52] [53]

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Pro 3

Law torso cameras are a good police reform tool and accept strong support from members of the public.

Law body worn cameras offer transparency and accountability to the public, which is an attempt to "mend that frayed relationship betwixt the police and the customs," co-ordinate to New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, JD. [56] [57] [58]

Video recorded from police trunk cameras can be used to train new and existing officers in how to perform during difficult encounters with the public. The Miami Police Section has been using body cameras for training since 2012. Former Police Major Ian Moffitt, MS, stated, "we tin record a situation, a scenario in preparation, and then become back and look at it and show the student, the recruit, the officer what they did good, what they did bad, and [what they can] ameliorate on." [17]

Amid the Black Lives Matter protests after the death of George Floyd, a June 2020 Reuters/Ipsos poll found 92% of Americans wanted federal police officers to clothing trunk cams. [54] A July 2020 University of Maryland School of Public Policy survey constitute xc% support for all law officers being required to wear body cameras, including 85% of republicans, 86% of independents, and 94% of democrats. [55]

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Con i

Police force body cameras are likewise expensive and unreliable for many police force departments.

Equipping police departments with body cameras is extremely expensive equally forces have to upkeep non only for the camera but as well for ancillary equipment (such as a car charger or mountain), training, data storage facilities, actress staff to manage the video information, and maintenance costs. [26] Baltimore Police force entered a trunk-worn photographic camera programme in 2016 for $xi.3 meg. As of June 25, 2020, the costs had tripled to $35.ane 1000000. [59]

Many police departments, particularly smaller departments with smaller budgets, have suspended body-worn camera programs citing rise costs of the cameras, maintenance of the programs, employees, and data storage. [27] [28] [29] [xxx] [60]

A trial in Edmonton, California, establish that body-worn cameras had an insufficient battery length for daily policing, specially in cold weather when battery life macerated more chop-chop. [ix]

A sheriff's office in Virginia stopped using body cameras due to the unreliability of their on-off buttons and poor integration with their It systems that resulted in the organisation inaccurately matching photographic camera footage to the officer wearing the camera. [31] As the cameras, supporting equipment, and networks age, costs volition but rise to maintain or replace equipment.

In a maybe farthermost just cautionary example, in Oct, 2018 a Staten Island, New York, officer's body camera burst into flames while the officer was wearing the device. He was luckily not injured, but the department was forced to retrieve thousands of cameras. [61]

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Con two

Police torso cameras invade the privacy of citizens, potentially exposing victims and subjecting citizens to facial recognition software.

Recording police encounters with the public could lead to the public exposure of private medical conditions such every bit mental illness. Victims of crimes such as rape or domestic corruption may be further traumatized past recordings. Informants or witnesses may fear reprisal from criminals. People being arrested may fear the damage of public exposure, such equally existence fired from a job. [17] [19] [34]

Quondam Spokane, Washington, Constabulary Chief Frank Straub, PhD, notes that "every day we are exposing persons challenged by mental illness, autism, developmental disabilities, addiction, etc. Nosotros are creating and making public recordings of their disease and potentially creating life-long consequences." [22]

Former Chief of Police force Ken Miller, MPA, of Greensboro, North Carolina, said that if citizens "retrieve that they are going to be recorded every time they talk to an officeholder, regardless of the context, it is going to damage openness and create barriers to of import relationships." [23]

Ane such barrier is fearfulness of retaliation. A US Justice Section report notes that some "people will exist less likely to come up frontwards to share information if they know their chat is going to exist recorded, particularly in high-criminal offence neighborhoods where residents might exist subject to retaliation if they are seen as cooperating with police." [23]

Another privacy fear, according to the ACLU, is that police body cameras will be worn as "roving surveillance devices that track our faces, voices, and even the unique way we walk" that could be used "to rail, classify, and discriminate confronting people based on their well-nigh personal, innate features." [62]

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Con 3

Police torso cameras decrease the safety of police officers and negatively affect their concrete and mental health.

Assaults on police officers were 14% higher when body cameras were nowadays. [18] Some people may respond negatively or violently to being filmed by police, especially those who may be nether the influence of drugs or booze, or who are suffering from mental health problems.

Academy of Oklahoma Professor of Law Stephen E. Henderson, JD, stated that the use of police torso cameras may exist psychologically damaging to officers because "nobody does well to be under abiding surveillance." [21]

Pat Lynch, President of the Police Chivalrous Association of the Metropolis of New York, stated officers "are already weighed downwardly with equipment like escape hoods [gas masks], Mace, flashlights, memo books, ASPs [batons], radio, handcuffs and the like. Boosted equipment becomes an encumbrance and a safety issue for those carrying information technology." [17]

Other potential health and safety issues include caput and cervix injuries, electric stupor or burns from faulty or damaged equipment, and the spread of contagious infectious diseases if the units are shared. [20]

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Discussion Questions

  1. Should police officers habiliment body cameras? Why or why non?
  2. In what ways might body worn cameras amend policing? In what ways might they complicate or impair policing? Explicate your answers.
  3. Should police departments consider other reforms in add-on or instead of body cameras? Which ones? Explain your answers

Take Action

1. Explore Bryce Peterson's argument that law trunk cameras tin increase community trust.

2. Consider the arguments on both sides with Pew Charitable Trusts.

3. Clarify why police body cameras haven't stopped police involved shootings and other incidents at Wired.

4. Consider how you felt about the issue before reading this commodity. After reading the pros and cons on this topic, has your thinking changed? If so, how? List two to three ways. If your thoughts have non inverse, list two to three ways your better understanding of the "other side of the issue" at present helps you meliorate argue your position.

5. Push for the position and policies you lot support by writing US national senators and representatives.

Sources

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48. Faith Karimi and Emanuella Grinberg, "Texas Ex-Officer Is Sentenced to fifteen Years for Killing an Unarmed Teen," cnn.com, Aug. xxx, 2018
49. Kevin Rector, "Caught Fabricating Evidence, Convicted Baltimore Law Officer Remains on Force 2 ½ Years Later," baltimoresun.com, Mar. 9, 2020
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