Should Police Officers Wear Body Cameras Essay

Ferguson, Missouri. Baltimore, Maryland. Chicago, Illinois; In these cities and around the country, police, citizens, and activists debate over the argument of whether or not police officers should wear body cameras. The topic of police brutality has become more prevalent due to social media recording questionable acts of violent incidents involving the police. The shooting in Ferguson, Missouri includes one of the most controversial cases because of police brutality, and started riots across the country. Citizens fear police-centered crimes such as violent assault and murder. Incorporating body cameras for police will help police catch criminals as well as keep police behavior in check, so citizens do not have to live in fear of police. Police
Body cameras can track and video tape criminal activity. If a police officer is at the scene of a crime with his or her body camera on, and a fight or incident occurs, it will all be recorded and stored for proper usage. Police body cameras will keep records of previous criminal activity by all criminals charged, if there is any previous criminal activity. Because police body cameras will save all video tapes, any criminal activity caught by the body camera will be kept in a permanent record, so if a certain names show up again police will be able to identify who or what is causing trouble or could be a threat to the public. Identification wise police body cameras will be an improvement because the body cameras will be able to get pictures of the criminal much easier than a police having to take a picture manually or describing what the criminal looks like, if the criminal were to escape from custody. Identification would also be much easier because police would have previous encounters that would have kept records of what the criminal looks like, and they will instantly know who they are dealing with. Police body cameras would most definitely cause an increase in legitimate arrests because of the ways police will be able to identify who or what is committing a crime and where the crime is being
Officers will have to notify the public whenever an officer is filming, but exceptions will be made for non-uniformed police officers involved in Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) raids. It is especially important the body cameras are not to be used to secretly gather information without warning based on the First Amendment, that protects freedom of speech, associations, and religions. Playing police body cameras continuously could also improve the public’s view of policing by showing the human side of police officers. “Sitting in a station house or patrol car shooting the breeze, getting to know each other as humans, discussing precinct politics, etc. We have some sympathy for police on this.” said the American Civil Liberties Union (parg. 5). Court cases would be so much more legitimate with the use of police body cameras because there would be much more evidence supporting a certain side of a case. The body cameras data would serve as virtual proof of what happened during the event the court is discussing. This would also make it so many investigations that would have to take place because of the lack of evidence would no longer have to take place. Police body cameras would show us the light in police officers that all the public wants to see, and not the dark in police officers the media