Body Cameras Pros And Cons

Police equipment give the police a better advantage against those who don’t cooperate. Such equipment can bring down suspects easily and help defend the police themselves. While on duty, a police officer will wear a bulletproof vest to protect themselves. A belt that carry’s all their needs such as: handcuffs, pistols, extra magazines, a taser, mace/pepper spray, a flashlight, a baton, multifunction tools, and first aid items. A belt can weigh over ten pounds if it is fully equipped. They will also have a functional radio for communication. One of the must arguable cases in today’s society is whether or not police should use body cameras. The benefits and downsides of wearing body cams. All arguments point to one solution; police wearing body

The camera captures from the officer’s point of view and can record sound and video. It is also used to strengthen the public’s trust with the police themselves. The body cameras came about in 2013 with only a couple police departments using them. After the Ferguson incident involving a police officer killing an 18-year-old boy named Michael Brown, body cameras were starting to get used more. The reason was because the of the cluster of who was right. It was either the officer was defending himself or was wrong for shooting the boy who was unarmed. It was a big mess when choosing if the officer did the right thing or not, but it would’ve been a lot easier to solve the case if he would have had a body camera on him to support is claim as to what happened that day. “The hope was that video recordings of police-civilian interactions would deter officer misconduct and eliminate the ambiguity present

“Increasing transparency necessarily means more people will view body-camera footage.” (Harvard 1807) The officer will have to warn the civilians every time there is an interaction because of the camera. This is a concern because “both advocates and critics fear that more recording means less privacy.” (Thomas 195) The civilian may not want to be filmed, so does that mean the officer has to turn their camera off while interacting with them? What about when the officer enters a home, will they have to turn their cameras off? Civilians will not like when their belongings and privacy is being exposed. The officers will also be able to go back to the recording and can find evidence that was unseen. “Contextual policies thus need to be developed about when cameras should stop rolling.” (Harvard 1808) These policies should be effective when they are in interviews that ask personal questions like being sexually assaulted. While police use the cameras, where does the storage go for storing the everyday footage while encountering