Police Body Cameras: Top 3 Pros and Cons

A Due north Charleston, Southward Carolina, police force officer wears a torso photographic camera in Mar. 2016.
Source: Ryan Johnson, "St. Paddy'south Day in Northward Charleston – 2016," Creative Eatables, Mar. 12, 2016

  • Overview
  • Pro/Con Arguments
  • Discussion Questions
  • Accept Activeness

Police torso cameras (also called body-worn cameras) are modest cameras worn on a police force enforcement officer's chest or caput to record interactions betwixt the officeholder and the public. The cameras have a microphone to capture audio and internal data storage to save video footage for later review. [37] [41]

According to the Agency of Justice Assistance, "[t]he video and audio recordings from BWCs [trunk-worn cameras] can exist used past law enforcement to demonstrate transparency to their communities; to document statements, observations, behaviors, and other show; and to deter unprofessional, illegal, and inappropriate behaviors past both law enforcement and the public." [41] Police force body cameras are in use around the world from Australia and Uruguay to the U.k. and South Africa. [xix] [32] [35] [36]

After the police shooting death of Michael Dark-brown on Aug. 9, 2014 in Ferguson, Missouri, President Barack Obama requested $263 million to fund body photographic camera programs and police training on Dec. 1, 2014. [38] [46] Equally a result the Section of Justice (DOJ)  implemented the Body-Worn Camera Policy and Implementation Program (BWC-PIP). Betwixt fiscal year (FY) 2015 and FY 2019, the BWC-PIP has given over 493 awards worth over a commonage $70 million to law enforcement agencies in 47 states, DC, Puerto Rico, and the US Virgin Islands. Agencies in Maine, Montana, and North Dakota accept not been awarded federal torso camera funding. [40] [42] [43] [44]

As of Oct. 29, 2018, the most recently bachelor information, 36 states and DC had specific legislation about the use of police body cameras. At that time, some other iv states had pending body camera legislation. [45]

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

Should Police Officers Wear Torso Cameras?

Pro one

Police trunk cameras improve constabulary accountability and lower reports of police misconduct.

Police body cameras provide visual and sound prove that tin independently verify events. In Texas, a constabulary officer was fired, charged with murder, and sentenced to a $10,000 fine and 15 years in prison house later on body-worn camera footage contradicted his initial statement in the April. 2017 shooting of an unarmed youth. [12] [48]

In Baltimore, Maryland, an officer was bedevilled of fabricating evidence and misconduct in office after existence caught by body-worn cameras planting faux drug show.[14] [49]

A RAND study found that employ of strength past police officers dropped if the officers wearing cameras kept the cameras recording for the officers' whole shift. [471] In Miami-Dade County, Florida, researchers found a 19% reduction in police officers using physical forcefulness confronting denizen resistance, and ceremonious cases against the police section for use of strength dropped 74%. [l]

In Phoenix, Arizona, complaints against officers wearing cameras decreased 23%, while complaints confronting officers not wearing cameras increased x.6%. [13]

The cameras also protect law officers against false accusations of misconduct. In San Diego, California, the apply of body cameras provided the necessary evidence to exonerate law officers falsely defendant of misconduct. The number of astringent misconduct allegations deemed simulated increased 2.4% with body camera footage, and the number of officers exonerated for less astringent allegations related to carry, courtesy, procedure, and service increased 6.5%. [xi]

Read More

Pro 2

Police trunk cameras are a powerful tool in domestic violence cases.

When an officer wearing a camera arrives at a domestic violence scene, the camera is able to record the firsthand aftermath of the attack, including injuries the victim has suffered, as well as victim statements that may exist more honest than later statements in one case victims call back emotional and financial ties to their abusers. [51] Victims may likewise feel 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 called and come through the door, the victim is very happy and relieved to encounter them. They experience safe. They tell the officer what happened. That statement given right at that moment is more likely to be 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 body cameras were deployed in Burnsville, police recorded video for almost every domestic violence case, something one-time Chief Deputy of the Dakota County Chaser's Office, Phil Prokopowicz, JD, plant useful. He stated that camera footage "can exist influential in resolving the case in terms of negotiations. The accused gets to see the human activity and know what volition exist displayed in forepart of the jury. The documenting of those first moments is very disquisitional to those types of cases, too as any admissions that may occur as officers are entering." [51]

Officers in the United Kingdom and Queensland, Australia echoed this do good, stating some abusers plead guilty because they knew at that place was video footage evidence against them.[52] [53]

Read More

Pro 3

Constabulary body cameras are a skilful constabulary reform tool and have strong support from members of the public.

Police torso worn cameras offer transparency and accountability to the public, which is an attempt to "mend that frayed relationship betwixt the police and the customs," according to New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, JD. [56] [57] [58]

Video recorded from police body cameras can be used to railroad 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 Major Ian Moffitt, MS, stated, "nosotros can record a state of affairs, a scenario in grooming, and so go back and look at it and show the educatee, the recruit, the officeholder what they did good, what they did bad, and [what they can] improve on." [17]

Amid the Black Lives Matter protests after the death of George Floyd, a June 2020 Reuters/Ipsos poll establish 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 force officers being required to wearable body cameras, including 85% of republicans, 86% of independents, and 94% of democrats. [55]

Read More than

Con 1

Police trunk cameras are too expensive and unreliable for many police departments.

Equipping police departments with body cameras is extremely expensive as forces have to budget not only for the photographic camera but also for ancillary equipment (such as a motorcar charger or mount), grooming, data storage facilities, extra staff to manage the video information, and maintenance costs. [26] Baltimore Police entered a torso-worn camera program in 2016 for $11.3 one thousand thousand. As of June 25, 2020, the costs had tripled to $35.i million. [59]

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

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

A sheriff's office 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 system inaccurately matching camera footage to the officeholder wearing the photographic camera. [31] As the cameras, supporting equipment, and networks age, costs will only ascension to maintain or replace equipment.

In a possibly extreme but cautionary case, in Oct, 2018 a Staten Island, New York, officer'south torso camera burst into flames while the officer was wearing the device. He was luckily not injured, only the section was forced to recall thousands of cameras. [61]

Read More

Con 2

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

Recording police encounters with the public could lead to the public exposure of private medical conditions such as mental disease. Victims of crimes such as rape or domestic abuse may be further traumatized past recordings. Informants or witnesses may fear reprisal from criminals. People being arrested may fearfulness the damage of public exposure, such as being fired from a task. [17] [nineteen] [34]

Sometime Spokane, Washington, Law Chief Frank Straub, PhD, notes that "every day we are exposing persons challenged by mental affliction, autism, developmental disabilities, habit, etc. We are creating and making public recordings of their illness and potentially creating life-long consequences." [22]

Old 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 officeholder, regardless of the context, information technology is going to damage openness and create barriers to important relationships." [23]

One such barrier is fright of retaliation. A The states Justice Department study notes that some "people will be less likely to come forward to share information if they know their chat is going to exist recorded, particularly in loftier-crime neighborhoods where residents might be subject to retaliation if they are seen as cooperating with police." [23]

Another privacy fear, co-ordinate to the ACLU, is that police body cameras will be worn as "roving surveillance devices that runway our faces, voices, and fifty-fifty the unique way we walk" that could be used "to track, classify, and discriminate confronting people based on their nearly personal, innate features." [62]

Read More

Con 3

Police trunk cameras subtract the prophylactic of law officers and negatively affect their physical and mental health.

Assaults on police officers were 14% college when body cameras were present. [xviii] Some people may respond negatively or violently to being filmed by police force, especially those who may exist under the influence of drugs or alcohol, or who are suffering from mental health problems.

Academy of Oklahoma Professor of Law Stephen East. Henderson, JD, stated that the employ of police body cameras may be psychologically damaging to officers considering "nobody does well to be under constant surveillance." [21]

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

Other potential health and safety issues include caput and neck injuries, electric shock or burns from faulty or damaged equipment, and the spread of contagious infectious diseases if the units are shared. [20]

Read More

Discussion Questions

  1. Should police officers wear body cameras? Why or why non?
  2. In what ways might trunk worn cameras improve policing? In what ways might they complicate or impair policing? Explain your answers.
  3. Should police departments consider other reforms in improver or instead of body cameras? Which ones? Explain your answers

Take Action

i. Explore Bryce Peterson's argument that police trunk cameras can increment community trust.

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

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

4. Consider how y'all felt about the issue before reading this article. Afterwards reading the pros and cons on this topic, has your thinking changed? If so, how? List ii to 3 means. If your thoughts have not changed, list two to 3 means your ameliorate understanding of the "other side of the issue" at present helps you better contend your position.

v. Push for the position and policies you lot support by writing US national senators and representatives.

Sources

one. Associated Press, "Britain Straps Video Cameras to Law Helmets," nbcnews.com, July 13, 2007
ii. Rory Carroll, "California Police force Use of Body Cameras Cuts Violence and Complaints," theguardian.com, Nov. 4, 2013
3. Vivian Hung, et al., "A Market Survey on Body Worn Camera Technologies," ncjrs.gov, Nov. 2016
4. National Briefing of State Legislatures, "Trunk-Worn Photographic camera Laws Database," ncsl.org, Oct. 27, 2017
5. Total Security Solutions, "Law Trunk Camera Basics, Office 1," tssbulletproof.com, Sep. fourteen, 2015
half dozen. United states of america Section of Justice, "BWC Program Update: Financial Year 2017," bja.gov, 2017
7. Tony Farrar, "Self-Awareness to Beingness Watched and Socially-Desirable Beliefs: A Field Experiment on the Effect of Trunk-Worn Cameras on Police Use-Of-Force," policefoundation.org, Mar. 2013
8. University of Nevada at Las Vegas, "Report: Police Body-worn Cameras Reduce Reports of Misconduct, Use of Forcefulness," forensicmag.com, Nov. 30, 2017
9. Edmonton Police Service, "Torso Worn Video: Because the Evidence," www.bwvsg.com, June 2015
10. Tom Ellis, et al., "Evaluation of the Introduction of Personal Issue Body Worn Video Cameras (Operation Hyperion) on the Isle of Wight: Final Report to Hampshire Police force," researchportal.port.ac.united kingdom, Feb. 2015
11. David Garrick, "Study: SDPD Body Cameras Reducing Misconduct, Ambitious Apply of Strength," sandiegotribune.com, February. nine, 2017
12. Maya Wiley, "Body Cameras Aid Everyone - Including the Police," time.com, May 9, 2017
13. Charles M. Katz, et al., "Evaluating the Impact of Officer Worn Trunk Cameras in the Phoenix Police force Department," asu.edu, Dec. 2014
xiv. PBS SoCal, "Three Police 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, Camera, Prove: London'southward Cluster Randomised Controlled Trial of Body Worn Video," college.law.ac.u.k., Nov. 2015
xvi. Emily Ekins, "Cato/YouGov Poll: 92% Support Police force Body Cameras, 55% Willing to Pay More than in Taxes to Equip Local Police," cato.org, January. v, 2016
17. Michael D. White, "Police Officer Body-Worn Cameras: Assessing the Prove," nicic.gov, 2014
eighteen. Barak Ariel, et al., "Wearing Torso Cameras Increases Assaults against Officers and Does Not Reduce Police Utilise of Force: Results from a Global Multi-Site Experiment," sagepub.com, 2016
19. Emmeline Taylor, "Lights, Camera, Redaction... Law Body-Worn Cameras: Autonomy, Discretion and Accountability," queensu.ca, 2016
20. Home Office (UK), "Guidance for the Police Employ of Trunk-Worn Video Devices," college.police.ac.uk, July 2007
21. Stephen Henderson, "Fourth Amendment Time Machines (and What They Might Say about Police Trunk Cameras)," upenn.edu, 2016
22. Nancy La Vigne, "Evaluating the Impact of Police Torso 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 Primary Obstacles in Police Trunk Camera Implementation," govtech.com, Mar. 8, 2016
25. Bobby Allyn, "Philly Reaches $12.5m Bargain with Taser Maker for Police Body Cameras," whyy.org, Oct. 23, 2017
26. National Institute of Justice, "Research on Body-Worn Cameras and Police Enforcement," nij.gov, Dec. 5, 2017
27. Laura Giles, "Pleasant Grove Officers Forced to Stop Using Trunk Cameras," heraldextra.com, Sep. 30, 2016
28. Rick Callahan, "Why 2 Police force Departments Stopped Using Body Cameras," csmonitor.com, Sep. ten, 2016
29. Nichole Mann, "Police Section Stops Using Body Cameras after Legislation," journalstar.com, Jan. xv, 2017
30. Benjamin Yount, "Costs Pushing Some Police Departments to Stop Using Body Cameras," effinghamradio.com, Sep. 25, 2017
31. Jason Shueh, "After Endless Glitches, Montgomery County Shelves Police Trunk Cameras," statescoop.com, Nov. 28, 2017
32. Reveal Media, "Uruguay Police Partner with Reveal in Due south America's 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 Camera Video," rcfp.org (accessed May 23, 2018)
35. Concern Tech Staff Writer, "South African Police Officers to Wear Trunk Cameras," businesstech.co.za, June 24, 2019
36. Privacy International, "Every Law in the UK Will Soon Employ Trunk Worn Video Cameras to Record Us in Public," privacyinternational.org, Mar. three, 2019
37. Metropolitan Constabulary, "How and When Are BWV Cameras Are Used," met.police.uk (accessed Aug. 12, 2020)
38. Carrie Dann and Andrew Rafferty, "Obama Requests $263 One thousand thousand for Constabulary Body Cameras, Training," nbcnews.com, Dec. 1, 2014
39. US Department of Justice, "Body-Worn Camera Program Fact Sheet 2015," bja.ojp.gov (accessed Aug. 12, 2020)
40. US Department of Justice, "Body-Worn Camera Programme 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. United states of america Department of Justice, "BWC Program Update: Fiscal Year 2017," bja.ojp.gov (accessed Aug. 12, 2020)
43. Bureau of Justice Assistance, "Program Update: Body-Worn Camera Policy and Implementation Program, Financial Twelvemonth 2019," bja.ojp.gov, Oct. 2019
44. Bureau of Justice Assistance, "Programme Update: Body-Worn Camera Policy and Implementation Plan, Financial Twelvemonth 2018," bja.ojp.gov, Nov. 2018
45. Urban.org, "Police Body-Worn Camera Legislation Tracker," apps.urban.org, Oct. 29, 2018
46. AP, "Timeline of Events in Shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson," apnews.com, Aug. 8, 2019
47. RAND, "Investigating the Effects of Body-Worn Cameras," rand.org (accessed Aug. 13, 2020)
48. Organized religion Karimi and Emanuella Grinberg, "Texas Ex-Officer Is Sentenced to fifteen Years for Killing an Unarmed Teen," cnn.com, Aug. xxx, 2018
49. Kevin Rector, "Caught Fabricating Prove, Convicted Baltimore Law Officer Remains on Force ii ½ Years Subsequently," baltimoresun.com, Mar. 9, 2020
50. Weston Publishing, LLC, "Researchers Observe that Torso-Worn Cameras Subtract Citizen Complaints Against Police Officers in Miami-Dade County," prnewswire.com, Jan. 7, 2019
51. Shannon Prather, "Police force Body Cameras Are Newest Tool against Domestic Violence," startribune.com, April. 26, 2015
52. Academy of Leeds, "'Tipping the Rest' against Domestic Corruption," phys.org, June 27, 2018
53. Axon, "Using Modern Applied science to Gainsay Domestic Violence," axon.com, Nov. 14, 2017
54. Chris Kahn, "Exclusive: Well-nigh Americans, Including Republicans, Support Sweeping Democratic Police Reform Proposals - Reuters/Ipsos Poll," reuters.com, June eleven, 2020
55. Nolan D. McCaskill, "Americans Agree on Police Reforms That Have Divided Washington, New Poll Shows," politico.com, July 14, 2020
56. Carl East. Heastie, "Assembly Passes Legislation to Require Body Cameras for All New York Country Law Officers," nyassembly.gov, June 9, 2020
57. Ton Lutey, "Daines Backs Law Reform Nib That Includes More Body Cameras and Accountability," billingsgazette.com, June 18, 2020
58. Andrew Cuomo, "Governor Cuomo Signs Legislation Requiring New York Country Police Officers to Wear Torso Cameras and Creating the Police force Enforcement Misconduct Investigative Function," governor.ny.gov, June sixteen, 2020
59. Mark Reutter, "Price of Baltimore'south Body Camera Program Triples to $35 Million," baltimorebrew.com, June 25, 2020
sixty. Rick Callahan, "Some Law Departments Shelve Trunk Cameras, Cite Data Costs," apnews.com, Sep. x, 2016
61. Ashley Southall, "Police Trunk Camera Bursts into Flames; New York Pulls 2,990 from Use," nytimes.com, Oct. 21, 2018
62. Matt Cagle, "California But Blocked Police Trunk Cam Apply of Face up Recognition," ACLU, aclu.org
63. Usa Department of Justice Role of the Deputy Attorney Full general, "Body-Worn Camera Policy," justice.gov, June seven, 2021