Police Body Cameras Improve Police Accountability?

Police today have one of the toughest jobs in the world. Protecting the innocent from the guilty, helping the public, arresting dangerous criminals and they put their life on the line everyday to make sure we are safe. Police body worn cameras would be a very helpful tool for solving crimes and making the determination who is innocent and who is guilty, but contrary some members of the public feel this is a violation of there privacy rights. Another thing is a set of guidelines needs to be set about who controls when the cameras are working. Despite the recent efforts for police to start wearing cameras very little research has been done to prove the effectiveness of the cameras.

All three of the articles have one common agreement. Police

Peter Manning a criminologist and sociologist believe that a camera changes the “ultra aggressive mindset of a police officer.” Often if the officer was being knowingly filmed they have the inclination to become “ less aggressive and more respectful when they interact with members of the community.” also manning found that cameras led to officers having a “reluctance to use lethal force” unless its absolutely needed. Manning and Scheindlin evaluated a experiment done by a police force in California and Arizona. Officers wore cameras for a year and they found that the jurisdiction in California, “citizen complaints against police declined by 60 percent.” In the Arizona study similar results were found. “The number of use-of-force complaints decreased by 75 percent.” Both of the authors looked at the pilot program In Nampa, Idaho, and they found that complaints dropped by 24 percent. Most importantly a shocking fact was discovered from these cases, the number of incidents that resulted in the use of force by an officer, dropped by 88 percent after the use of body cameras.” Another shocking fact the duo found was that officers who didn’t wear a camera, were twice as likely to be involved in a incident involving use of force than a officer who didn’t wear a camera. These facts that were found makes it seem like cameras changes the way officers act, while these facts are shocking there is one more that takes the cake. “When officers wore cameras, every incident of physical contact was initiated by a member of the public, but in the absence of cameras, 29 percent of the incidents involving physical force were initiated by the officer.” This fact is the most telling sign that in fact cameras do change the way people act. While