The Importance Of Body Camera On Police

Police officers are entrusted by the community with great power and authority by way of law to keep the peace and protect citizens. Interestingly, both Voltaire and Spiderman warned that “with great power comes great responsibility”. The police are paid by the community to both serve and protect the community. “There is a powerful social presumption that we should put our faith in cops” (Alexander). The community’s faith can be tested when police don’t live up to their responsibility. Body cameras, worn by the police as they go about their duty, can reassure the community that the police are living up to their responsibilities.

Equally important, a body camera is another tool for law enforcement. Certainly the cameras will help monitor

A University of South Florida study of 46 Orlando police officers with body cameras and 43 officers without cameras concluded that body cameras reduced the number of times police officers used force by 53 percent and dropped the number of complaints against officers by 65 percent” (Wolfenbarger). The study noted additional benefits for the police department including “de-escalating confrontations, reviewing the camera recordings helped them with collecting evidence, remembering events and minimizing errors” (Wolfenbarger). Most compelling, Wolfenbarger reported that most of the officers who participated in the study recommended that the cameras be worn by every police officer in the

Probably the most famous recorded police arrest is the beating of Rodney King in 1991. A bystander captured the brutal beating of Mr. King by Los Angeles police officers. Despite the gripping video, the officers were acquitted of the charges. The Rodney King video did change policing in Los Angeles from the leadership, to use of force policies, to the ethnicity of the force. “What was once a mostly white force is now mostly nonwhite, including in the supervisory ranks” (Winton). It is widely believed that the entire culture of the Los Angeles Police Department changed as the result of the fall-out from the Rodney King video. The Rodney King video had a powerful impact despite the lack of criminal convictions for the actual officers involved in the beating. In the 1996 Fremont coin thief case, the three police officers were charged and actually went to trial. However, they were convicted of a gross misdemeanor offense and served no jail time. The Humboldt County District Attorney declined to press charges in the case where $50,000 was taken from an innocent