In the last 5 years or so we have had so many police scandals arise and become the central eye of the news and papers. In 2015 we now have a massive rise with social media and usually are the first to get any information and or video. Every time the news comes on or anything related to media we will get new information or see tmz has the first video of it happening. Social media is the fastest way to get anything on the web or the news within hours. Scandals that I can think of off the top of my head are Kelly Thomas beating from Fullerton PD, Sheriff Lee Baca scandal involving jail violence among inmates, and tons and tons of scandals involving police beatings and the amount of force used. The most recent scandal to come out is the officer …show more content…
With the media and all of the videos we view tend to only have such short segments. As a result we truly do not know what happened in the first place, so this makes it hard to just point fingers. Some of the ways to be able to de-escalate a situation as stated by Dr. Laurence Miller is to have a good basic courtesy and common sense (Miller 2008). Having these skill sets will be proven helpful in bringing down the level of force we see used by police recently. The one scandal I want to discuss in my paper is the scandal that came along with the Baltimore riots. After the riots occurred there would then be a protest which took place on April 30, 2015. This protest would take place because the officers fatal injured a man by the name of Freddie Gray. Injuries sustained from this would be one that is life threating and end up ultimately in his untimely death. Freddie Gray had suffered a spinal injury as a result of the officer’s use of force; once again we have a case coming up with the use of force. Freddie’s injury was caused on …show more content…
There is no point in wasting money on this equipment if the officer won’t wear them and some of them can be turned off and aren’t used to show any evidence. Senator Tim Scott stated some interesting facts that would be crucial to the Freddie Gray Case. Scott states “Obviously if you had six officers with six different police cameras, six different angels, we would know exactly what happened” (Diamond 2015). If there would have been something in the van we would have been able to not only see Gray but see if the wounds were superficial or brought upon by Gray himself. There are several videos out there that have some videos of officers with body cams on and the actions and behavior are completely different then the videos we see people put up all over social media. Watching the video of the Gray incident there is no struggle or any resist of arrest what so ever and none of the officers applied any force, the only thing is that Gray was screaming of pain but nothing other than that. The officers just drag him until you see him finally go into the back of the police van. This is one of the most interesting cases I have ever studied and still shocked as the result of the young mans’ death. The officers whom I previously stated above that were indicted will be back in court on July 2 of this year to be brought to their charges (Fenton
If body cameras were required many police officers would be serving time in prison for some of their actions. A vast majority of the victims also would not have been harmed. Following a study done by Rialto, Calif. Police that ran from February 2012 to July 2013. A group of officers wore tiny video cameras while interacting with citizens. According to the New York Times, the video cameras resulted in a 60 percent drop in the use of force and an 88 percent drop in complaints against officers (Amalcar Scott, 2015, p.13). On a different randomized controlled trial, “nearly 1,000 officer shifts were randomized over a 12-month period of treatment and control conditions. During ‘‘treatment shifts’’ officers were required to wear and use body-worn-cameras when interacting with members of the public, while during ‘‘control shifts’’ officers were instructed not to carry or use the devices in any way. We observed the number of complaints, incidents of use-of-force, and the number of contacts between police officers and the public, in the years and months preceding the trial (in order to establish a baseline) and during the 12 months of the experiment” (Tabarrok,
There have been lots of modern technologies introduced in the United States of America to assist law enforcement agencies with crime prevention. But the use of body-worn cameras by police personnel brings about many unanswered questions and debate. Rising questions about the use of body cam are from concern citizens and law enforcement personnel. In this present day America, the use body cameras by all law enforcement personnel and agencies are one of the controversial topics being discussed on a daily base. Body worn cameras were adopted due to the alleged police brutality cases: for instance, the case of Michael Brown, an African-American who was shot and killed by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, on August 2014, Eric Garner died as a result of being put in a chokehold by a New York police officer, and John Crawford, shot and killed by a police officer at a Walmart in Beavercreek, Ohio.
One large factor that fuels police brutality is the media. The media is constantly showing the world what police officers are doing wrong. The book “The Politics of Force: Media and the Construction of Police Brutality”, is a book where author Regina Lawrence does an extensive study on how the media ties in with the formation of police brutality. Lawrence analyzed more than 500 incidents of police use-of-force covered by the New York Times and in the Los Angeles Times from the year 1981 to 1991. Lawrence informs readers of the structural and cultural forces that both shape the news and define when police use excessive force. Lawrence claims that police brutality incidents occur in greater numbers than those that are reported. She also explores how media is obtained, so the public can see a new perspective on policing policies. Journalists decide whether one story makes it to the news if the issues and events need light shone upon them. If it were not for the media, many issues and events would go undocumented, as police and elected officials would rather leave them unexposed. Lawrence also shows how a news event involving the police can become a tool for isolated social groups to gain access to the
Huffington Post shared a study that was created by University of South Florida, which surveyed the Orlando Police Department’s pilot program. This survey was done at random, it picked 46 officers who were to wear the device and then the survey looked at 43 officers who did not wear the body cam.This is a common trend all across social media and news, that police “too often” abuse power. Though this isn’t a true statement because there are no statistics conclusive enough to prove this due to the government not collecting that data, which was said by the Free Thought Project (adweek). Police officers across the nation become sworn officers because they want to make a difference in their communities not break them apart and cause unrest. The disappointing part about all of these allegations against police are that the people see just a few crooked people who happen to be a police officer and the people are quick to judge the whole system and believe that all officers are bad even though the good officers far surpass the effects of the crooked ones. This describes how police are looked at and the statistic from Policeone.com offeres an insight into the protection offered by dashcams which would correlate to the body cams. “According to the responses of more than 3,000 officers completing the written survey,
By adopting body cameras, officers can do their job without having to worry about getting punished or fired for doing the right thing, even if the events take a turn for the worst, as long as the officer is taking the correct actions they will be protected. Police officers are required to go through months of training and multiple probationary periods before being put out on the streets. The officers know right from wrong, the camera is just there to remind them, someone is always watching.
In recent months there have been many incidents of police brutality or police abusing their power in the media. These cases have sparked a national interest in how the police interact with the public and decisions that they make in the course of their jobs. The number of police brutality incidents have been increasing in recent years. I believe that this problems has been going on for some time but with the recent improvements in technology, social networking and mass media, these incidents have become a topic of national conversation.
Due to the riot that happened in Ferguson, MO contemplating if officer Darren Wilson shot Michael Brown through self defense, police officers should wear body cameras because it provides more evidence, shows the actual situation at that particular time, the area of the officer to show it was safe, or prove not all cops are “crooks” or racist.
...ith the public” (When cops kill). The bodycams would capture the time when Officers use force it will protect the Officer with lawsuits but it can also be used as evidence against him. There are many controversies that come from using the bodycam many are that the Officer can pause or stop the recording or that they can edit the recording so it can not look bad to the public.
This issue being addressed and investigated is the police use of deadly force and the contents that lead up to the use of deadly force. Looking at police policies and the statistics of officer involved shootings of unarmed victims just simply doesn’t add up. The use of deadly force has continued to increase as decades past and determining the issues behind it is crucial for helping maintain a positive image from the public of police officers. Incidents such as Michael Brown and Ferguson are the cases that provide the evidence needed to prove deadly force is not always the option and can be overused by police officials at times but is also sometimes necessary depending on the circumstances. The primary cause of this issue is
“In July 2014, the Department of Justice released a report that showed that the Newark Police Department had engaged in a pattern of unconstitutional conduct. According to the report, seventy-five per cent of documented pedestrian stops by the police were not justified. Yet during the three years that the Department of Justice investigated the department, its internal-affairs office dismissed ninety-nine per cent of complaints lodged against officers.” Jelani Cobb a New Yorker writer and PBS’ Frontline crew filmed a documentary called “Policing the Police”, concerning the Newark Police Dept. He needed to see what difference in police culture could happen in a financially emphasized city which endured more than 100 murders
Their footage can provide valuable evidence in cases where police and civilian accounts of events differ. “In court, the jury can see what exactly happened,” explains Richard Beary, president of the International Association of Chiefs of Police. “It’s a very factual depiction of what transpired.” “There are a lot of false accusations, and the videos prove the officers right about 99 percent of the time,” said Beary. That’s one reason Jason Parker, head of the police department in Dalton, Georgia, believes the majority of law enforcement officials in the U.S. are in favor of body cameras. “They want to demonstrate to the public that they’re doing things in a professional manner and that by and large, they are using a great deal of restraint” ("Considering Police Body Cameras”). Without cameras, officers can write their narratives as they see fit. Police officers, often when they are writing their reports, write how they wish they had behaved rather than, in fact, how they behaved (Feige,
Police corruption has been around for a long time the roots could be found all the way back to 1840 (Criminology, 2016)). Eventually, in New York, someone decided to take a stance on all the corruption because the very ones that took an oath to protect and serve are the very ones that are breaking the law. Some examples of the corruption that was implemented were taking bribes, extortion, and even murder. When one man named Frank Serpico had evidence of the corruption done by the police he went through the chain of command and notified his superiors, but only the men lowest on the totem pole was punished. So when Frank Serpico realized the higher authority was untouched he released the information to the public. Releasing that information only got him the label
Today most of the Police Force is viewed on what social media has to say because most people believe everything they see online. “Media accounts of police misconduct also influence perceptions of the police, but less so than personal interactions. Frequent exposure to media reports of police abuse or corruption is a strong predictor of perceptions of misconduct and supports the belief that it is common” (National Institute of Justice). People who believe everything that they see on social media or on the news is how they believe to see Police officers. Say that they saw a video on Facebook of an officer cuffing a black man and people yelling in the background “That’s racist!”, the viewers watching the video will think that the officer is only arresting the man because of his race and not think about why the man is actually being arrested. This quote shows that citizens may view their perception of police officers differently because of what they read on social
Body cameras, in essence, have the ability to keep both police and citizens honest. This provides an indubitable opportunity for a judge to actually see and hear what actually happened at an incident, which could be different from what a police officer had transcribed in their report (Lou Ponsi, 2015). Interestingly, playback the video recording could essentially assist officers in more accurately filling out their reports. In fact, “the city of Fullerton, California allows their officers to view their videos to assist them in writing their police reports—except in situations involving in‐custody deaths, officer‐involved shootings, or incidents that involve a significant injury to a member of the public” (Lou Ponsi, 2015). With their reports being more accurate, it would become easier for departments to refute any false claims against
The media depicts officers in many different ways, most of which are not always positive. Officers face discrimination as a result and may not be able to perform their duties properly. The media is constantly talking about how all law enforcement officials are racist, violent, and ultimately criminals themselves. It can be very hard for a police officer to be taken seriously. People may even fear police officers, which makes it difficult to conduct an investigation of any sort. Officers are also in danger of violence, because people assume the worst about them, they may take extraordinary measures to prevent the police from doing their jobs. Of course, there are some bad police out there, but there are also a lot of police who are keeping us all safe. The media is definitely the biggest danger law enforcement officials currently