Police Body Cameras: Top 3 Pros and Cons

A North Charleston, South Carolina, police force officer wears a torso photographic camera in Mar. 2016.
Source: Ryan Johnson, "St. Paddy's Twenty-four hour period in N Charleston – 2016," Creative Commons, Mar. 12, 2016

  • Overview
  • Pro/Con Arguments
  • Discussion Questions
  • Take Action

Constabulary body cameras (also called body-worn cameras) are small cameras worn on a law enforcement officeholder's chest or head to tape interactions between the officer and the public. The cameras accept a microphone to capture audio and internal information storage to save video footage for afterwards review. [37] [41]

According to the Bureau of Justice Assistance, "[t]he video and audio recordings from BWCs [body-worn cameras] can be used by police enforcement to demonstrate transparency to their communities; to document statements, observations, behaviors, and other evidence; and to deter unprofessional, illegal, and inappropriate behaviors by both law enforcement and the public." [41] Police body cameras are in use around the world from Australia and Uruguay to the United Kingdom and Southward Africa. [xix] [32] [35] [36]

After the police shooting decease of Michael Brown on Aug. 9, 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri, President Barack Obama requested $263 1000000 to fund body camera programs and police force preparation on Dec. i, 2014. [38] [46] As a event the Department of Justice (DOJ)  implemented the Torso-Worn Camera Policy and Implementation Program (BWC-PIP). Between fiscal year (FY) 2015 and FY 2019, the BWC-PIP has given over 493 awards worth over a collective $70 million to law enforcement agencies in 47 states, DC, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands. Agencies in Maine, Montana, and North Dakota take not been awarded federal body photographic camera funding. [40] [42] [43] [44]

As of Oct. 29, 2018, the most recently available information, 36 states and DC had specific legislation about the employ of police force torso cameras. At that fourth dimension, some other four states had awaiting body camera legislation. [45]

On June 7, 2021, US Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, JD, directed the ATF, DEA, FBI and US Marshals "to develop and submit for review" torso-worn photographic camera policies in which agents wear cameras during "(1) a pre-planned attempt to serve an arrest warrant or other pre-planned abort, including the anticipation of fugitives sought on state and local warrants; or (2) the execution of a search or seizure warrant or lodge." [63]

Should Police Officers Vesture Torso Cameras?

Pro 1

Law body cameras improve police accountability and lower reports of law misconduct.

Police force body cameras provide visual and audio evidence that tin independently verify events. In Texas, a police officer was fired, charged with murder, and sentenced to a $x,000 fine and 15 years in prison house later body-worn photographic camera footage contradicted his initial statement in the Apr. 2017 shooting of an unarmed youth. [12] [48]

In Baltimore, Maryland, an officer was convicted of fabricating evidence and misconduct in role afterwards being caught by body-worn cameras planting imitation drug prove.[14] [49]

A RAND report establish that utilize of force by police officers dropped if the officers wearing cameras kept the cameras recording for the officers' whole shift. [471] In Miami-Dade County, Florida, researchers establish a nineteen% reduction in police officers using physical forcefulness against citizen resistance, and civil cases against the law department for use of forcefulness dropped 74%. [50]

In Phoenix, Arizona, complaints confronting officers wearing cameras decreased 23%, while complaints against officers non wearing cameras increased 10.6%. [13]

The cameras also protect police officers against faux accusations of misconduct. In San Diego, California, the apply of body cameras provided the necessary evidence to exonerate police officers falsely accused of misconduct. The number of severe misconduct allegations deemed false increased two.4% with body camera footage, and the number of officers exonerated for less astringent allegations related to acquit, courtesy, procedure, and service increased 6.five%. [11]

Read More

Pro 2

Law body cameras are a powerful tool in domestic violence cases.

When an officer wearing a camera arrives at a domestic violence scene, the photographic camera is able to tape the firsthand aftermath of the attack, including injuries the victim has suffered, equally well as victim statements that may be more honest than later statements once victims recall emotional and financial ties to their abusers. [51] Victims may also experience more secure in their testimony with video evidence backing up their statements. [52]

Elliott Knetsch, JD, Prosecutor for the City of Burnsville, Minnesota, whose police department uses body-worn cameras, stated, "When the cops are chosen and come through the door, the victim is very happy and relieved to run across them. They experience condom. They tell the officeholder what happened. That statement given right at that moment is more likely to exist the truth than what comes out even half an hour later, when the implications of what has happened start to set in." [51]

In the six months since torso cameras were deployed in Burnsville, police recorded video for almost every domestic violence case, something former Chief Deputy of the Dakota County Chaser'southward Office, Phil Prokopowicz, JD, found useful. He stated that camera footage "tin can be influential in resolving the case in terms of negotiations. The accused gets to see the act and know what will be displayed in front of the jury. The documenting of those beginning moments is very critical to those types of cases, as well every bit any admissions that may occur as officers are entering." [51]

Officers in the United kingdom of great britain and northern ireland and Queensland, Commonwealth of australia echoed this benefit, stating some abusers plead guilty because they knew in that location was video footage bear witness against them.[52] [53]

Read More

Pro 3

Police torso cameras are a proficient police reform tool and accept strong support from members of the public.

Constabulary body worn cameras offering transparency and accountability to the public, which is an attempt to "mend that frayed human relationship between the police and the customs," according to New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, JD. [56] [57] [58]

Video recorded from police body cameras tin be used to train new and existing officers in how to perform during difficult encounters with the public. The Miami Police Department has been using torso cameras for training since 2012. Former Police force Major Ian Moffitt, MS, stated, "we can record a situation, a scenario in training, and then become back and expect at information technology and prove the pupil, the recruit, the officer what they did good, what they did bad, and [what they can] better on." [17]

Amid the Blackness Lives Affair protests later the death of George Floyd, a June 2020 Reuters/Ipsos poll found 92% of Americans wanted federal police officers to wear body cams. [54] A July 2020 University of Maryland Schoolhouse of Public Policy survey found 90% support for all police officers being required to vesture body cameras, including 85% of republicans, 86% of independents, and 94% of democrats. [55]

Read More

Con 1

Police body cameras are also expensive and unreliable for many law departments.

Equipping police departments with body cameras is extremely expensive equally forces accept to budget non only for the camera merely also for ancillary equipment (such as a car charger or mount), training, data storage facilities, extra staff to manage the video data, and maintenance costs. [26] Baltimore Police entered a body-worn camera program in 2016 for $11.3 million. As of June 25, 2020, the costs had tripled to $35.i million. [59]

Many police force departments, especially smaller departments with smaller budgets, take suspended trunk-worn photographic camera programs citing ascent costs of the cameras, maintenance of the programs, employees, and data storage. [27] [28] [29] [30] [60]

A trial in Edmonton, California, found that trunk-worn cameras had an insufficient battery length for daily policing, especially in cold weather when battery life macerated more rapidly. [9]

A sheriff's part in Virginia stopped using trunk cameras due to the unreliability of their on-off buttons and poor integration with their It systems that resulted in the organization inaccurately matching photographic camera footage to the officer wearing the photographic camera. [31] Equally the cameras, supporting equipment, and networks age, costs will merely ascent to maintain or supercede equipment.

In a mayhap extreme only cautionary example, in October, 2018 a Staten Island, New York, officeholder's torso camera outburst into flames while the officer was wearing the device. He was luckily not injured, but the department was forced to recollect thousands of cameras. [61]

Read More

Con 2

Police body cameras invade the privacy of citizens, potentially exposing victims and subjecting citizens to facial recognition software.

Recording police encounters with the public could atomic number 82 to the public exposure of individual medical conditions such equally mental illness. Victims of crimes such as rape or domestic abuse may exist farther traumatized by recordings. Informants or witnesses may fearfulness reprisal from criminals. People being arrested may fear the damage of public exposure, such as being fired from a job. [17] [19] [34]

Former Spokane, Washington, Police Primary Frank Straub, PhD, notes that "every mean solar day we are exposing persons challenged by mental illness, autism, developmental disabilities, addiction, etc. We are creating and making public recordings of their illness and potentially creating life-long consequences." [22]

One-time Chief of Law Ken Miller, MPA, of Greensboro, North Carolina, said that if citizens "think that they are going to exist recorded every time they talk to an officer, regardless of the context, it is going to damage openness and create barriers to important relationships." [23]

1 such barrier is fear of retaliation. A US Justice Department report notes that some "people will exist less probable to come up frontward to share data if they know their conversation is going to be recorded, particularly in high-criminal offence neighborhoods where residents might be subject to retaliation if they are seen equally cooperating with constabulary." [23]

Some other privacy fear, co-ordinate to the ACLU, is that constabulary torso cameras will exist worn as "roving surveillance devices that track our faces, voices, and even the unique style we walk" that could be used "to track, classify, and discriminate against people based on their about personal, innate features." [62]

Read More

Con 3

Police force trunk cameras decrease the safe of police force officers and negatively affect their concrete and mental wellness.

Assaults on police officers were 14% higher when torso cameras were present. [18] Some people may answer negatively or violently to existence filmed past police, peculiarly those who may be nether the influence of drugs or alcohol, or who are suffering from mental health issues.

University of Oklahoma Professor of Law Stephen East. Henderson, JD, stated that the use of police body cameras may be psychologically dissentious to officers because "nobody does well to be under abiding surveillance." [21]

Pat Lynch, President of the Police Benevolent Association of the City of New York, stated officers "are already weighed down with equipment similar escape hoods [gas masks], Mace, flashlights, memo books, ASPs [batons], radio, handcuffs and the like. Boosted equipment becomes an encumbrance and a prophylactic upshot for those carrying information technology." [17]

Other potential wellness and safety issues include head and cervix injuries, electric daze or burns from faulty or damaged equipment, and the spread of contagious infectious diseases if the units are shared. [twenty]

Read More

Word Questions

  1. Should police officers clothing body cameras? Why or why not?
  2. In what ways might torso worn cameras ameliorate policing? In what means might they complicate or impair policing? Explain your answers.
  3. Should constabulary departments consider other reforms in addition or instead of body cameras? Which ones? Explicate your answers

Have Activeness

ane. Explore Bryce Peterson's argument that police torso cameras tin can increase community trust.

ii. Consider the arguments on both sides with Pew Charitable Trusts.

3. Analyze why police body cameras haven't stopped police involved shootings and other incidents at Wired.

iv. Consider how you felt about the issue earlier reading this article. After reading the pros and cons on this topic, has your thinking changed? If so, how? Listing ii to three ways. If your thoughts have not changed, list two to three ways your improve understanding of the "other side of the issue" now helps you ameliorate argue your position.

v. Push for the position and policies y'all back up by writing US national senators and representatives.

Sources

1. Associated Press, "U.k. Straps Video Cameras to Police force Helmets," nbcnews.com, July thirteen, 2007
2. Rory Carroll, "California Police Use of Body Cameras Cuts Violence and Complaints," theguardian.com, November. four, 2013
iii. Vivian Hung, et al., "A Market Survey on Body Worn Camera Technologies," ncjrs.gov, Nov. 2016
four. National Briefing of State Legislatures, "Body-Worn Camera Laws Database," ncsl.org, October. 27, 2017
5. Total Security Solutions, "Police Trunk Camera Basics, Part one," tssbulletproof.com, Sep. 14, 2015
6. US Department of Justice, "BWC Program Update: Fiscal Year 2017," bja.gov, 2017
7. Tony Farrar, "Cocky-Awareness to Existence Watched and Socially-Desirable Behavior: A Field Experiment on the Effect of Body-Worn Cameras on Police force Apply-Of-Force," policefoundation.org, Mar. 2013
8. University of Nevada at Las Vegas, "Study: Police Body-worn Cameras Reduce Reports of Misconduct, Use of Force," forensicmag.com, Nov. 30, 2017
9. Edmonton Police Service, "Body Worn Video: Considering the Show," world wide web.bwvsg.com, June 2015
10. Tom Ellis, et al., "Evaluation of the Introduction of Personal Issue Body Worn Video Cameras (Operation Hyperion) on the Island of Wight: Final Study to Hampshire Police force," researchportal.port.ac.britain, February. 2015
11. David Garrick, "Report: SDPD Body Cameras Reducing Misconduct, Aggressive Employ of Force," sandiegotribune.com, Feb. nine, 2017
12. Maya Wiley, "Body Cameras Help Anybody - Including the Police force," time.com, May 9, 2017
thirteen. Charles Thousand. Katz, et al., "Evaluating the Bear upon of Officeholder Worn Body Cameras in the Phoenix Police Department," asu.edu, Dec. 2014
14. PBS SoCal, "Three Police force Misconduct Cases - All Involving Body Cameras - Had New Developments This Calendar week. Here's What Happened," pbs.org, Aug. 11, 2017
15. Lynne Grossmith, "Police, Photographic camera, Testify: London's Cluster Randomised Controlled Trial of Body Worn Video," higher.police.air conditioning.uk, November. 2015
16. Emily Ekins, "Cato/YouGov Poll: 92% Back up Police Body Cameras, 55% Willing to Pay More in Taxes to Equip Local Police," cato.org, January. 5, 2016
17. Michael D. White, "Police Officer Torso-Worn Cameras: Assessing the Evidence," nicic.gov, 2014
xviii. Barak Ariel, et al., "Wearing Trunk Cameras Increases Assaults confronting Officers and Does Not Reduce Police Use of Force: Results from a Global Multi-Site Experiment," sagepub.com, 2016
19. Emmeline Taylor, "Lights, Camera, Redaction... Police Body-Worn Cameras: Autonomy, Discretion and Accountability," queensu.ca, 2016
20. Domicile Role (UK), "Guidance for the Police Use of Body-Worn Video Devices," college.police.air conditioning.britain, July 2007
21. Stephen Henderson, "4th Amendment Time Machines (and What They Might Say almost Police Body Cameras)," upenn.edu, 2016
22. Nancy La Vigne, "Evaluating the Impact of Police Body Cameras," urban.org, Aug. 5, 2015
23. Lindsay Miller, et al., "Implementing a Body-Worn Camera Program: Recommendations and Lessons Learned," policeforum.org, 2014
24. Jason Kotowski, "Money, Storage Master Obstacles in Police Body Camera Implementation," govtech.com, Mar. 8, 2016
25. Bobby Allyn, "Philly Reaches $12.5m Deal with Taser Maker for Constabulary Body Cameras," whyy.org, October. 23, 2017
26. National Institute of Justice, "Research on Body-Worn Cameras and Police force Enforcement," nij.gov, Dec. 5, 2017
27. Laura Giles, "Pleasant Grove Officers Forced to Stop Using Body Cameras," heraldextra.com, Sep. 30, 2016
28. Rick Callahan, "Why Two Law Departments Stopped Using Body Cameras," csmonitor.com, Sep. 10, 2016
29. Nichole Mann, "Law Department Stops Using Body Cameras afterward Legislation," journalstar.com, Jan. 15, 2017
xxx. Benjamin Yount, "Costs Pushing Some Police Departments to Terminate Using Body Cameras," effinghamradio.com, Sep. 25, 2017
31. Jason Shueh, "After Endless Glitches, Montgomery County Shelves Police Body Cameras," statescoop.com, Nov. 28, 2017
32. Reveal Media, "Uruguay Police force Partner with Reveal in South America'southward First Major Body Worn Video Study," revealmedia.com, July 12, 2016
33. Matt Pearce, "Growing Use of Police Body Cameras Raises Privacy Concerns," latimes.com, Sep. 27, 2014
34. Reporters Committee for the Freedom of the Press, "Access to Police force Body-Worn Photographic camera Video," rcfp.org (accessed May 23, 2018)
35. Business Tech Staff Writer, "Due south African Police Officers to Article of clothing Body Cameras," businesstech.co.za, June 24, 2019
36. Privacy International, "Every Police Force in the UK Will Soon Utilize Body Worn Video Cameras to Record United states of america in Public," privacyinternational.org, Mar. three, 2019
37. Metropolitan Police, "How and When Are BWV Cameras Are Used," met.police.uk (accessed Aug. 12, 2020)
38. Carrie Dann and Andrew Rafferty, "Obama Requests $263 Million for Police Body Cameras, Training," nbcnews.com, Dec. 1, 2014
39. US Section of Justice, "Body-Worn Camera Program Fact Sheet 2015," bja.ojp.gov (accessed Aug. 12, 2020)
40. US Section of Justice, "Body-Worn Camera Program Fact Sheet 2016," bja.ojp.gov (accessed Aug. 12, 2020)
41. Bureau of Justice Assistance, "Body-Worn Camera: Frequently Asked Questions," bja.ojp.gov, 2015
42. Us Department of Justice, "BWC Program Update: Fiscal Yr 2017," bja.ojp.gov (accessed Aug. 12, 2020)
43. Agency of Justice Assistance, "Programme Update: Body-Worn Camera Policy and Implementation Plan, Fiscal Year 2019," bja.ojp.gov, October. 2019
44. Bureau of Justice Assistance, "Program Update: Body-Worn Camera Policy and Implementation Program, Fiscal Year 2018," bja.ojp.gov, November. 2018
45. Urban.org, "Law Trunk-Worn Photographic camera Legislation Tracker," apps.urban.org, October. 29, 2018
46. AP, "Timeline of Events in Shooting of Michael Brownish in Ferguson," apnews.com, Aug. viii, 2019
47. RAND, "Investigating the Effects of Body-Worn Cameras," rand.org (accessed Aug. thirteen, 2020)
48. Organized religion Karimi and Emanuella Grinberg, "Texas Ex-Officeholder Is Sentenced to 15 Years for Killing an Unarmed Teen," cnn.com, Aug. 30, 2018
49. Kevin Rector, "Caught Fabricating Evidence, Convicted Baltimore Constabulary Officer Remains on Strength 2 ½ Years Later," baltimoresun.com, Mar. ix, 2020
l. Weston Publishing, LLC, "Researchers Discover that Body-Worn Cameras Decrease Citizen Complaints Confronting Police Officers in Miami-Dade Canton," prnewswire.com, Jan. 7, 2019
51. Shannon Prather, "Police Body Cameras Are Newest Tool against Domestic Violence," startribune.com, Apr. 26, 2015
52. University of Leeds, "'Tipping the Residual' against Domestic Abuse," phys.org, June 27, 2018
53. Axon, "Using Mod Technology to Combat Domestic Violence," axon.com, Nov. 14, 2017
54. Chris Kahn, "Sectional: About Americans, Including Republicans, Support Sweeping Autonomous Law Reform Proposals - Reuters/Ipsos Poll," reuters.com, June 11, 2020
55. Nolan D. McCaskill, "Americans Concord on Law Reforms That Have Divided Washington, New Poll Shows," pol.com, July xiv, 2020
56. Carl Eastward. Heastie, "Assembly Passes Legislation to Require Body Cameras for All New York Country Police Officers," nyassembly.gov, June 9, 2020
57. Ton Lutey, "Daines Backs Police Reform Bill That Includes More Body Cameras and Accountability," billingsgazette.com, June 18, 2020
58. Andrew Cuomo, "Governor Cuomo Signs Legislation Requiring New York State Police Officers to Wear Body Cameras and Creating the Police force Enforcement Misconduct Investigative Office," governor.ny.gov, June xvi, 2020
59. Mark Reutter, "Price of Baltimore'southward Body Photographic camera Program Triples to $35 1000000," baltimorebrew.com, June 25, 2020
60. Rick Callahan, "Some Police Departments Shelve Trunk Cameras, Cite Data Costs," apnews.com, Sep. x, 2016
61. Ashley Southall, "Constabulary Body Camera Bursts into Flames; New York Pulls two,990 from Employ," nytimes.com, October. 21, 2018
62. Matt Cagle, "California Just Blocked Constabulary Body Cam Use of Face Recognition," ACLU, aclu.org
63. Us Department of Justice Office of the Deputy Attorney General, "Torso-Worn Camera Policy," justice.gov, June 7, 2021