More handpicked essays just for you.
Essays on technology in the police
The effect of technology in a policing environment
Essays on technology in the police
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Within recent years there has been much controversy encompassing police officers and regardless of whether they ought to wear body cameras to document all their daily activities. While the utilization of body cameras may appear to invade the public or police privacy, police should wear body cameras. By wearing body cameras, they could enhance people's perspective of police by demonstrating their compassion, protect the public from police misconduct and protect law enforcement from dealing with false allegations that can discredit their reputation. Additionally, it can help to provide evidence when individuals may not be able to, which are all vital parts of policing. Police body cameras are an indispensable device for cops and our communities …show more content…
The usage of old footages can be crucial to new cops since it can show them how to manage various circumstances effectively that way they don't put their profession at risk or the lives of their accomplices in danger. Everybody realizes that there are always three sides to a story: what one individual says happens, what the other individual says happened, and what happened. With the execution of body-worn cameras, it would eliminate, he said she said argument and offer an honest and genuine account of events in question. South Carolina Representative Gerald Malloy states in an article that "body cameras protect police, protects the general population and protects the truth." Also, he goes on to say, "from their experience, I know citizen complaints have gone down, utilization of force has gone down, and the footage offers great apparatuses to training" (Williams, 2015, pg. 1). With state government officials concurring with results of body-worn cameras they can find a way to actualizing them in their …show more content…
The perspective of police has gone down given all the negative attention they have received as of late. Some people believed that there is a great deal of division between the two, and uniting the law enforcement and the public will change that perception. “Equipping a body camera gives the people the ability to realize the greatness that cops do (Arnett, 2015).” The unfortunate truth is that there have been cases, which have made all police officers appeared awful, while that is not the situation. There are many occasions that cops make an extraordinary effort to help individuals, for example, when two cops chose to step up and assist a father that was down on his luck with three small kids and no car seats. "Perceiving the family was down on their luck, Gower and Hawkins chose to purchase the young girls; ages one, three, and four; car seats as opposed to ticketing the father. "Giving him three tickets, it would not do any good," Gower told KVUE. "Those children were all the while must be driven some place, some way or another with no car seats." Said Hawkins: "We just ventured off to the side and said we have to make the best choice and get this family some car seats." (Blossom, 2015 section 4) These are the
Police Body Cameras Due to devastating events that have occurred between policemen and civilians, law enforcements find it liable for police officers to be fitted with body cameras. In doing so it is thought to bring an increase in trust in the community, reduce brutality and crime, as well as elucidate good cops still around. I feel body cameras will bring more awareness to police departments when it comes to the honesty in their staff’s actions when they are unsupervised. They can be used as hard evidence in courtrooms, to help make the correct judgment on the situation in question.
“A body-worn camera in public policing is a miniature audio and video recording device which allows recording of officers’ duties and citizen interaction,” notes Thomas K. Bud. Police body-cameras are significantly growing in popularity across Canada. While legislation has not confirmed definite rules regarding the use of body-cameras, local police departments have begun their implementation. Canadian police services involved in these projects include Toronto, Victoria, Edmonton, Calgary, and Amherstburg Police Services. The results of these projects have revealed mixed thoughts regarding body-camera effectiveness. Is it a good idea for police to wear body-cameras? While the cost of police wearing body cameras seems prohibitive, police wearing
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.
Since their inception, police body cameras have been a controversial topic as many do not agree on their effectiveness and legality. To the trained eye, body cameras clearly have no negatives other than the sheer cost of their implementation. Some people, nonetheless, do believe that it is an encroachment of privacy for police to record private and/or public interactions even though it is purely legal. While that may be seen as a negative, it is wholly subjective and must be completely ignored when considering the factual analysis of police body camera use that is necessary to verify their validity. When only taking fact into account, there is no way to deny the nearly infinite benefits of body cameras.
Police officers should be required to wear body cameras because it will build a trust between law enforcement and the community, it will decrease the amount of complaints against police officers, and lastly it will decrease the amount of police abuse of authority. In addition, an officer is also more likely to behave in a more appropriate manner that follows standard operating procedures when encountering a civilian. “A 2013 report by the Department of Justice found that officers and civilians acted in a more positive manner when they were aware that a camera was present” (Griggs, Brandon). Critics claim that the use of body cameras is invasive of the officers and civilians privacy.
The struggle for more transparency in policing is an issue that has been waging on for years unchecked, but with necessary body cameras this problem will be able to be solved. With the use of body cameras, police procedure can become public knowledge. This will help prevent things like the Ferguson riots that took place after the decision to not indict officer Darren Wilson. Some people argue that the use of these body cameras could violate privacy laws because “Unlike previous forms of surveillance, body-cameras can enter private spaces more easily, and can focus on individuals more effectively” (Freund 95). However, this issue can be easily solved as unlike dash cameras, which are automatic, the body cameras need to be switched on. This allows the officer to use their discretion on when to actively record. This information can repair the already damaged trust between the police and the public. Use of cameras would also decrease the rate at which police receive complaints. According to Brucato “For the police, accountability offers the opportunity to exonerate themselves and their agencies from false complaints” (457). All the frivolous complaints and lawsuits that using a body camera prevents also serves a purpose to save money of the police department. In today 's society people only see the police incidents being recorded through the use of cellphone filmed
Do police officers really need body cameras is a question that has been repeated all throughout the nation. Body cameras are video recording systems that are used by law enforcement to record their interactions with the public and gather video evidence. Most police departments do not wear body cameras currently and the ones that do are in trial phases to see how it works out. There are many advantages to police officers wearing body cameras but in asking the question should they wear body cameras the stakeholders should look at the complete picture. One reason that police and body cameras have constantly been brought up lately are the instances of police brutality happening within the United States. Police brutality within the United States
Only recently has there been an increased amount of police involvement with citizens all over the media because of the past years fatal police encounters with unarmed black men in New York City, Ferguson, Mo., Baltimore and other parts of the U.S. Most of it has been either feeding the war on cops theory or shedding light to the real injustices dealt by police officers. The reality of the issue is that there 's too many opinions and not enough facts to back up either notion of whether the body cameras work or not due to the fact of how recent the issue is. Time is a large factor in any study dealing with long term effects for what is being researched. There has only been a handful of studies made to combat the real issues present in our society today, but there is not enough time to provide the people today the long term effects of police worn body cameras.(7 Findings from First-ever Study on Body
To conclude, I learned many things on my ride along, but the thing that I still think about now is how police officers just do their job. The media gives police officers’ a bad name and tell the public about the bad things that they do. The media does not show what the officers do to protect the community or how they risk their lives in order to bring safety to the community. My ride along was a great experience and I am glad that I had the chance to ride along with Officer Ernesti.
Police officers with their body cameras: a history and back ground paper to answer the question if should all police officers wear body cameras, it is important to first look at the history and back ground of the topic. According to article of Journal of quantitative criminology, writers Ariel, Farrar, Sutherland, Body cameras have been given a new eye opener to people about the excessive use of force against their community members. Arial, Farrar, and Sutherland in the article state “The effect of police body warn cameras on use of force and citizens’ complaints against the police: A randomize controlled trial” describe their observation as:
On August 09, 2014 an incident involving an 18 year old named Michael Brown and Police Officer Darren Wilson sparked an immediate demand for police across the nation to be mandated to wear police body cameras. This incident between these two was also immediately politicalized, racialized, and seemed to galvanize the public’s opinion that police in general were racist, corrupt and untrustworthy.
According to interviewed police officers, once members of the public were notified that they were being filmed, “even drunk or agitated people tended to become more polite.” As a result of these behavioral changes, “police departments saw a nearly 90 percent decrease in complaints against officers since body cameras have been introduced into the communities.” The use of body cameras should be able to reduce the complaints and potentially help to nourish a culture of more respectful interactions between police and the public. “Body cameras should, in turn, be expected to lead to greater public engagement with police officers and ultimately to improved public safety.” Complaints of police misconduct usually begin with a written or oral statement by a person claiming that one or more officers engaged in conduct that breaches the law or policies of the department. “Officers and other witnesses then give their own statements of the incidence, video footage, unlike the memory of a human being, does not become less accurate over time.” In addition, many complaints are currently resolved only by making a credibility determination between the complainant and one or more of the officers involved. “By objectively recording events as they transpire, body cameras could help investigators make even more accurate findings.” These finding can help maintain the integrity of the officer being accused and the police
Police shootings occur all over the world but are a huge problem within the United States. We continue to hear more and more about them. These shootings are making headlines. Front page news it seems almost weekly. All the shootings go one of two ways. Either a Police Officer has been shot or a Police Officer has shot a citizen, but either way the final result is death. Whether an Officer has been shot or an Officer has shot someone these cases seem to be related to one thing, fear. People in today’s society feel as though they can’t trust Police Officers as they are there to hurt and kill them. And Police Officers feel as though they are in danger of doing their everyday duties because people see them as the “bad guys” and want to hurt or kill them. Yes, police brutality and racism still exist, but not all cops are bad. Yes there are still bad citizens in this world that want to kill and harm others, but not all citizens are bad. People seem to react to these shootings by rioting quickly after a police officer has shot and killed someone without
Many numerous police officers have been given body cameras over the last few months. Due to this, there have been videos that were made public which caused an outcry throughout the country. With the increase in body cameras over the country, there has been many setbacks and potential benefits that
With advanced body camera machinery such as GoPro growing more influential in today's civilization, controversy has emerged over whether law enforcement officers should be required to utilize body cameras or not, so that each and every movement is recorded and displayed while on duty. Police should be able to have these cameras on their attire at all times, no matter where they go as long as they are in duty. This allows officers to documentate everything and, unlike human beings, the cameras do not have the ability to lie so it will protect and safeguard any incorrect allegations. This type of technology should be dispersed to police stations in every single state because as society advances progressively more into