Arguments Against Body Cameras

Everyday police officers risk their lives protecting our communities and the citizens that live within them. When these officer respond to each and every call, they never know when it may be their last. Recently, the job has been under a lot more scrutiny than ever before, a large part of this is due to the public losing trust in the criminal justice system. With the black lives matter movement gaining more support and power, many police involved shootings have been protested and even have led to riots in some of America's biggest cities. While most of these shootings are justified, some however are not, which in turn leads for a bigger push into body cameras for police officers. Body cameras would portray a more accurate representation of
interactions these officers have with citizens. These cameras could also lead to safer and less violent results that officers who did not wear a camera. Before 2014, many officer related shootings went unheard, however with the recent shootings of unarmed individuals across the country, many people want answers.
When an incident like this occurs and the individual dies, it is very hard to have any defense system mainly due to the circumstances that the story is coming from the police officer. While most of us like to believe that officers would not intentionally try to harm innocent citizens, there have been some cases that this is not true. Thus, body cameras would show us the truth and paint an accurate description of what really happened in each encounter. According to an article written by Chaz Kelsh and published from Harvard Kennedy school of government, “supporters say the devices are needed to provide transparency, build public trust and provide evidence against false complaints” (Kelsh). These cameras do more than paint an accurate picture, but they also repair the trust that has been destroyed between police departments and citizens. The more evidence to show that each case is justified, the more the public will stand behind their officers actions. This is all in hopes of restoring the bridge so officers and citizens can work together to have a positive influence on other
individuals. Although there are benefits like restoring public trust, there are some negative implications that body cameras offer. Non supporters believe that body cameras go against many privacy rights and infringe on people at some of their worst times in life. The nature of a police officer's job means they often see citizens at tragic and embarrassing moments. Police Executive Research Forum published an article in which recommending some recordings be prohibited, including “strip searches, conversations with informants, and those that take place place where a reasonable expectation of privacy exists” (Feeney). Not only can these cameras violate many privacy acts, they are also very expensive to maintain. According to the Associated Press, “Cleveland expected to spend at least half a million dollars a year simply to store, maintain, and replace the body cameras. While the data storage could be up to $3.3 million over five years” (Feeney). Although larger departments obviously have more money to buy cameras, others do not. Usually, smaller departments do not have the funding to come up with substantial amounts of money to be to afford cameras for each officer. Imposing many questions as to how these cameras would benefit the smaller communities.
While body cameras would portray an accurate picture of events, and possibly even restore trust within police departments, the privacy violations and funding are two cons of cameras. Ultimately, it comes down to each community to determine if it is worth the extra costs and put limitations on some of the privacy rules to make their community a safer place. The truth is, I along with much of the public supports the idea of police wearing body cameras. However, I think there needs to be limitations on when and where to record such as hospitals. If communities have enough money to buy and properly maintain cameras, then yes they should indeed have them. If police officers continue to do their job with the right morals in mind and with proper training, they should have nothing to hide while having interactions be recorded.