Body Camera Limitations

The time is 3:00 AM on a Saturday morning and Officer Smith is a couple hours shy of completing his shift. Suddenly, his radio crackles to life directing him to respond to a domestic call in a dangerous area of his jurisdiction. Officer Smith is met in the darkened Livingroom by a bloody and naked woman, and his functioning body camera captures the scene in front of him. As he is attempting to calm the distraught women, his peripheral vision captures a man lunging at him with a metallic object from an adjoining room. Officer Smith leaps aside, pulls his weapon, and fatally shoots the man only to find the metallic object was a broken metal towel rod. Even though his body camera was functioning correctly it did not capture the totality of the event, and the alleged victim fails to corroborate his story. This story relates the cameras’ inabilities regarding privacy concerns, failure to capture the incident as a whole, and camera limitations inherent with its usage. Therefore, instead of pushing for nationwide implementation of body cameras it is likely that other alternatives are required until these issues are resolved.

The recent events involving claims of excessive force and police brutality such as; Michael Brown, Walter Scott,
Issues such as privacy concerns, when to initiate the camera, and camera limitations are not to be taken lightly. Furthermore, these particular problems require careful examination before they can be corrected. This is why nationwide implementation needs to be postponed until long-term research can be conducted by neutral sources. However, the usage of cameras should not be completely abandoned, but rather utilized with the knowledge that they are tools with limitations. Maybe, in time, body camera utilization will become a step in the process of better public relations with law