Police Body Cameras
With new and improving technological advancements, police body cameras have become a very controversial topic for quite some time now. Although this is true, there is significant information that supports why the cameras are crucial in police officers work days, as well as why they aren’t. As the years have progressed, so has the distrust in the public as well as police officers. Police body cameras have opened a window into the daily interactions that police officers have with civilians. Everyday police officers are faced with dangerous situations, and having a body camera is one step to help ensure that if any wrong doing is done, there is proof. On the other hand there are a few reasons as to why police body cameras
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With the growing amount of police departments requiring officers to use body cameras in their line of work, this also in theory will increase transparency within the police department. According to James Carless, A survey was given out to an entire police department with over 4,300 people. 75% of the officers claimed that they joined the police to serve their communities. Despite the multiple issues being faced by today’s law enforcement officers, "Two-thirds of the police (66%) and an even larger share of the public (93%) favor the use of body cameras by police to record interactions between officers and the public. Half of officers and two-thirds of the public (66%) say a police officer would be more likely to act appropriately when wearing a body cam” (Carless, 2021). With this given information it is safe to say that the police department and public agree that it is a safe protocol to have all officers wear body cameras. This will automatically lead to more transparency within the police force and the departments themselves all across the …show more content…
With recent disputes regarding defunding the police, it leaves what is truly necessary up for debate. Police departments can only afford to do so much with the amount of government funding they get. The equipment is exponentially expensive when it comes to supplying every officer with a body camera. The costs not only include the device itself, but the ongoing maintenance and video footage and recorded data that is collected (Kissiah, 2022). With frequently changing technological advancements, the prices continue to rise. In addition to this, the White House has claimed that “A federal funding program that has provided $40 million to more than 175 law enforcement agencies for the purchase of BWCs” (White 2017). This shows that the government has placed a lot of money into the use of body cameras that could possibly be used somewhere