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Arguments Against Police Body Cameras

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After the police brutality attacks that have become quite popular and common within the United States, the affirmative action, requiring all police to wear body cameras, see that this procedure will alleviate and hopefully eliminate all counts of police brutality. These body cameras will be instituted to protect both parties since “the arguments in favor of police body-cams are simple. The videos would offer an accurate and unbiased record of exactly what occurred in each officer’s shift,” (Klabin, 2015). In order to protect our citizens, police officers have been entrusted with the immense responsibility of having the authority to use force within certain circumstances. But we are not being protected. Cops kill an American citizen every eight …show more content…

The number of attacks are only rising as police use their authority to their advantage and take their given use of force for granted. This push for body cameras reflects on the criticism that there is not enough oversight of police departments (Vega, 2015). In North Charleston, South Carolina, a police officer accused of killing a man named Walter Scott was only charged with murder after a video shot by a civilian (not an officer) of the incident surfaced. This raises my question, Who is guarding our guardians? Many officers have reported a testimony, proven to be false after video evidence surfaced. Without the videos proving a victim to be innocent, these police would be walking among us as killers, disguised as our protectors. When officers and citizens are aware that their behavior is being monitored, both parties have an immediate tendency to behave accordingly. “The results of this study suggest that this increase in self awareness leads to more positive outcomes in police-citizen interaction,” (Wile, 2015). The government is losing money by not subjecting police to wear body cameras. Police misconduct expenditure costs $1.8 billion annually, while the cost to supply police with body cameras across the nation only ranges up to $20

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