Summary: The Importance Of Body Cameras

In August 9th 2014, an unarmed black teenager, Michael Brown was shot and killed by Darren Wilson, a Ferguson, Missouri police officer. The officer faced no charges because Wilson was not wearing a body camera therefore there was no reliable evidence. There have been many similar incidents like this one therefore I think police officers should wear body cameras.These tiny cameras placed on an officer’s chest, shoulder, or head can record and provides unbiased evidence and improve their behavior. Although, the cameras raise privacy concerns for the public but policies can help address this concerns. Also they also protect police officers and the public. Body cameras can record encounters between police officers and members of the public that can provide unbiased evidence. In March 1991, Rodney king was severely beaten by several officers from the Los Angeles Police Department (Koh). The incident was videotaped by a bystander. The video was used as evidence against the police officers, they were tried and acquitted of assault.(Koh) Without the video the officers would not have been charged and king would not have justice. The body cameras can record any situation
Requiring police officers to wear body cameras will help protect citizens Forth Amendment right against unreasonable search and seizure. A 2004 study by criminologists Stephen Mastrofski evaluated direct observations of police searches in a medium-sized American city (Bailey). They estimated that nearly one-third of police searches were performed unconstitutionally and almost none of the unconstitutional searches came to the attention of the courts (Bailey).Not only do they protect the public, the cameras protect the police officers too.The video recording helpds them from false accutions of abuse. According to Jay Stanley, a policy analyst with the American civil liberties union, calls "a win/win for the public and the police”