Argumentative Essay On Body Cameras

The audience of this essay is generally any Texan interested in politics, police brutality, and safety policies. In addition, my persuasion is aimed towards residents in Texas specifically in areas such as Austin and El Paso, for they would be greatly impacted by the enforcement of body cameras since El Paso withstands them and Austin enforces them city-wide and in UT campus. An article for the two areas would be suitable for my argument, such The Austin American-Statesman, The Daily Texan, and El Paso Times.

The disputing rise in police brutality and eruptive police shootings has led to the enforcement of body cameras being equipped by police officers. The excessive police misconduct impacted the tension between police departments and communities,

The author explained the process to authorize and use the body cameras by the University of Texas Police Department since they wanted to feel completely safe when it comes to their relationship with the police. The different issues presented to the department, such as the individual privacy and cost were discussed by UTPD in their process of implementing this technology. When concerned over the privacy of the citizens, “the officer will activate the camera only when interacting with individuals in an official capacity, such as responding to a call, making an arrest or writing a ticket” (Martfin, par. 2). Additionally, UTPD faced high expenses when incorporating the body cameras such as El Paso’s police department, but UTPD saw the camera as another priority they have to buy for police officers on duty. Marfin, emphasized this by quoting UTPD Chief David Carter, “the cost and the difficulty is about managing that information and ensuring that information is secure and will withstand the scrutiny of a court in the case that we need to use it for evidence” (par. 5). Although the time and cost of the body-cameras brought issues to the department, UTPD’s main goal is to build trust between the community and the police officers to ensure the community’s safety. Which is noticed by the students, as many believe is a true testament to the department’s

12). This persuades the audience to be for the enforcement of the body cameras as it allows citizens to have an option of not recording ensuring their privacy rights. Craver emphasizes how the camera policy offers easy solutions when dealing with the transparency of citizens. Providing in depth solutions to the enforcement of body cameras which may assure Austin residents the impact these cameras will have for the city’s safety and transparency. Moreover, in O’mara’s article, he uses logic to convey that maybe the change needed is not through our police officers but through our existing laws. He enforced this by stating, “through our elected officials, we tell police officers when it is appropriate to use force, and we’ve told police they can use physical force to make an arrest, even for misdemeanors” (par. 11). Stating examples of what the elected officials administer such as police force standards and injustice laws, allows the reader to think more logical regarding the demand for change in laws. O’mara ,“raises a point that is often lost when we are debating the actions of individual officers – cops are not a gang of miscreants, waiting to