Argumentative Essay On Body Cameras

With each growing day, it becomes apparent the relationship and trust between police officers and citizens are rapidly diminishing. Particularly, with recent cases where police officers have been found not guilty of fatally shooting an unarmed man, planting evidence to ensure the suspect face jail time, or just simply committing police brutality. Police officers are given the task of protecting citizens and property, enforce laws, making arrests, issue tickets, investigate crimes and testify in court. However, who is given the responsibility to assure officers are not abusing their powers. Therefore, to ensure police officers are actively performing the duties of their job body cameras should be implemented to assure safety, accountability,

Concerns about the intrusion of privacy and breach of Fourth Amendment Right presents many difficulties and can deter many police department from equipping their officer with body cameras. However, because of the complication, the endorsement by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), who does not like the increased use of body cameras to keep tabs on citizens, but recognize that body camera can result in the reduction of use-of-force incidents and assist in holding law enforcement more accountable to the community. In the article, it states, “the ACLU advocates that most privacy protections will have to come from restrictions on subsequent retention and use of the recordings. The ACLU recommends the following policies to assist a department in protecting privacy rights: (1) Recording should be limited to uniformed officers and marked vehicles, so people know what to expect. An exception should be made for SWAT raids and similar planned uses of force when they involve non-uniformed officers… etc.”(RAMIREZ) In other words, the ACLU advocacy and recommendation for privacy policies lighten the load and risk for police departments to acquire body cameras. Therefore, the burden that faced by citizens and police officers regarding privacy is resolved knowing that a civil liberty group, ACLU, are helping to implement proper policies to protect