Preview

Why Are Body Cameras Important

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
1097 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Why Are Body Cameras Important
A lot has been taking place in our society between officers (mainly Caucasian) and citizens (mainly African Americans and Hispanics/Latinos). Many of these cases lack valuable evidence which causes a lot of suspicion and accusations that are usually false. Tensions are rising, which is resulting in more discrimination, racial profiling, and even more racial issues overall. The introduction of body cameras to officers in each state would help substantially. Police should be required to wear body cameras because they provide valuable evidence in cases, protect both the citizens and the officers, and the cameras being present influences their behavior.
If all officers were required to wear body cameras, gathering and providing evidence would
…show more content…
Given widespread belief, some type of body worn camera will become a part of police’s tool kits. “It usually takes a high profile incident like a police shooting, and unlawful arrest, public spectacle or alleged abuse of power or a lower profile he-said she-said case that prompts that sort of fact finding mission and that’s precisely where body worn cameras are useful for public safety.”(“BMPpro”) Many cameras lack needed evidence that will make cases easier to solve. Body cameras will help both sides of an altercation be shown, instead of going off of accusations that are possibly …show more content…
When officers didn’t wear body cameras altercations differed from when they did wear the cameras. “When officers wore body cameras, almost every physical incident was caused by a citizen. When officers didn’t wear cameras, 29% of incidents with physical force were caused by the officers.” (Americas Quarterly) The officer’s and the citizen’s actions will either be proved or disproved because the cameras will be providing the evidence so that it could be proven. Accountability will increase because while using cameras, they can’t lie or contradict the claims of the opposite side because the video has the proof. These are reasons why and how, body cameras will be useful in our society, even though many others don’t agree.

Many sources contradict my position on police wearing body cameras. They often believe that officers wearing body cameras is a form of invading the citizens and officer’s privacy. “Privacy issues are of concern for both cops and civilians. How to deal with those concerns is still being evaluated.” Their privacy might be affected, but overall it’s to protect them by providing evidence to support their claims and provide facts in their case. Therefore, body cameras are more useful to officers and citizens than it is

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Since things are not always as they seem, how can we have a view on everything that is happening. The only way to fix this problem is to enforce a law where all officers must wear a body camera at all times while out on the line of duty. This will minimize from any incident not being properly recorded, this will help avoid any misunderstandings. Body cams will not only help the officers, but also for the other party involved. How you ask? Well let’s take into consideration what we are going by right now. We have stuff being recorded…

    • 754 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Police Officers should be required use body camera because so many things are happening. Officers are killing people and if they are wearing a body camera everyone will be able to feel more safe. They will be able to see the true story behind what a cop does. Now a days innocent people are…

    • 356 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Body Camera Limitations

    • 788 Words
    • 4 Pages

    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…

    • 788 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    I think that police officers should wear body camera’s when on duty so that if something goes wrong they could have it on film.body camera’s could be used as evidence against some police officers like for example if a police officer shows no respect or hits someone it could be filmed and that officer would lose his or her job. back in 2014 when the incident happened with the cop and the unarmed teen the video camera would have came in handy to see what really went down between them…

    • 158 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    There have been many arguments worldwide about officers enforced to wear body cameras. Wearing body cameras does not stop violence against officers or civilians. There are some concerns for the civilians that are being tapes as well. Officers wearing body cameras on duty still make bad choices, even the civilians. It may limit the violence but it will not stop it. There are many concerns that you have to think about like privacy implications, assault against officers and how it will not stop the violence. Body cameras are not a solution to our problem. We need more than little cameras hanging on a shirt.…

    • 281 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Should police officers wear body cameras? A 2013 University of Cambridge study found that when officers wear body cameras, both police and respondents are less likely to use violence. This study indicated a drop in the use of force by more than fifty percent. Body cameras will make the streets safer for both officers and the general public. Continuously wearing the camera will hold the officer accountable for his/her behavior. Also, body cameras can prevent cases like the Ferguson and Baltimore case, where the public was not for sure what had happened. In saying this, police officers should be made to wear body cameras.…

    • 371 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Ever since the government has introduced the police body cameras in 2013, both the crime rate and the rate of hostile confrontation between police and citizens have gone down drastically in the areas that the cameras were used. “Complaints against officers dropped 88 percent and use-of-force reports fell by 60 percent.” (Feige) I believe that the reason these numbers have changed so sporadically is because everyone is going to be on their best behavior when the camera is on. Neither the cop nor the citizen is inclined to be hostile because they both know that the camera is on and the camera will not lie when brought up in the court of law.…

    • 533 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Police dashboard have been in use by some law enforcement agencies since the mid19990s. Following the shooting death of an armed black teenager in Missouri, in august 2014, and an officer involved in that shooting protests erupted across the country and community leader called for all police officers to be equipped with body cameras, Th0se officers that wear body camera and it claim that their use will reduce the use of force by police officers and lesson the number of complaints by citizens against the police. Opponent of having citizens wear body camera cite privacy concerns especially if the video recording are made part of the public record. Body camera are on the verge of changing as we know it. A particular thorny questions is wheter officers who use force against individuals should…

    • 590 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Suggestions about police body cameras can also significantly reduce tension between blacks and police. The theory of police body cameras is that the filming will show “evidence of some objective truth along with violent encounters between civilians and police” (). The body cams would help ease tension between blacks and police because the evidence being recorded can help tell the whole story of controversy’s that occur rather than having two sided arguments about what point of view is right. A central study was conducted in Rialto, California about the effectiveness of body cameras and indeed, complaints against officers dropped 88 percent and the use of force reports fell by 60 percent…

    • 112 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Police brutality is a huge problem in America today, and few steps are being taken to prevent this injustice. One way of eliminating some of this from society is having police officers wear manually activated cameras on their bodies to record any interactions with civilians. Recently, multiple cases revolving around police brutality including two extremely controversial cases from 2014 where two black men (Eric Garner and Michael Brown) were killed by white officers who later were not charged. The news and multiple social media websites took notice of these cases and it became a widespread public issue. A way to solve this problem is to have law enforcement wear these cameras so that the video recordings can be used to resolve many disputes revolving around necessary force. Body cameras…

    • 804 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Recently, police departments across the country have received much scrutiny for recent actions. The latest installment to the never-ending saga, that we all follow on the evening news, is the highly controversial topic of police body cameras. These cameras would attempt to provide an officers perspective to difficult situations and might help explain the actions of our police officers. Two recent articles published by the L.A. Times and The New York Times outline the pros and cons to making body cameras standard issue. The article published by the L.A. Times written by Matt Pearce takes a negative stance on the topic. The article clearly outlines the cons to body cameras and provides little insight to their benefits. The article published by…

    • 819 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Yes, police officers should be forced to use the use of body cameras. Police dashboard cameras, commonly known as dash cams have been around for a long time. They have been used I law-enforcement agencies since the mid-1990s. Which was found in Paragraph one. People feel that body cameras will encourage police officers and also citizens to behave better. Also the use of body cameras should both reduce the use of force and lessen the need and the opportunity to lie about it. However, on the other hand critics claim that watching the video will alter the officers’ memory of the incident, and it is important to consider the detrimental consequences police officers of video that contains information directly pertinent to their fate.…

    • 376 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    There have been many complaints about if body cameras on police officers will work or not. There are two people that have different opinions that other people that think body cameras will stop police brutality against police officers. William N. Grigg, and Joshua Krause these people think body cameras on police officers will not work, and will not stop or decrease the violence from police officers. Grigg’s argument is Their arguments are that the officers from the SDPD forgot to turn on their body cameras while on duty. A crime that happened in April, Officer Neal Browder fatally shot a 31-year-old man named Fridoon Zalbeg Rawshannehad, who had been suspected of carrying a knife. After the shooting, no weapon was found, although Rawshannehad was carrying what has been described as “a shiny looking object.”(San Diego Cops…

    • 839 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The study indicated a drop in use of force by more than 50 percent. Body cameras will make the streets safer for both officers and the general public. Continuously wearing body cameras will hold police accountable for their appropriate and inappropriate conduct. Body cameras would prevent cases like Ferguson and Baltimore, where protested a police officer killing Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager. Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old black man died of injuries sustained when he was in the custody of Baltimore police, there was no way for the public to know for sure what had happened.…

    • 361 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Police Body Cameras Essay

    • 570 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Police body cameras have been a topic of controversy in the last year, one of the main ramifications this topic has is that body cameras will provide more evidence in cases where white police officers kill black civilians. There has been a lot of cases in which the only witness left is the officer and there’s no evidence to prove him wrong. Police body cameras should be a part of every police department uniform in the United States.…

    • 570 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays