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Body Cameras In Law Enforcement

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The Benefits of Body Cameras in Law Enforcement How can Body Cameras help Law Enforcement? Dashboard cameras have become an antiquated tool for police officers. According to the Los Angeles Times, “Critics claim that watching the video will alter the officer's memory of the incident. But this isn't necessarily a bad thing”. The human memory of complex and highly charged events is invariably incomplete. Police officers cannot be expected to encode and retain every one of the countless details that make up a use-of-force incident” (Simon). This will provide officers help to get the facts needed for the case. Therefore, there will be more hard evidence that can also be used in court. In addition, “Human memory is also susceptible to a …show more content…

Witness claim that the deputies are abusing their powers against the public.According to World Book Student “ Police brutality generally takes one of two forms: excessive force or unnecessary force. Excessive force involves using more force than necessary to control a suspect. Unnecessary force can take many forms, including using force when a subject did not resist arrest; using force when a subject could be easily controlled in other ways; using force against a handcuffed suspect, or continuing to use force after a subject has been subdued”. Because there are two different forms of brutality the deputies can be charged with both if found guilty. “Officers begin by attempting to control a situation by their professional manner. If unsuccessful, they will move to verbal commands. If a person actively resists, officers will next use such techniques as come-along holds and wrist locks. A come-along hold controls an unrestrained or unwilling offender's movements without injuring him or her by putting pressure on a sensitive part of the body, causing discomfort”. Officers are allowed to use the force if they are feeling that certain people’s action is offending the officers. Officers are also permitted to use force in certain situations. “ If confronted by assaultive or aggressive behavior, officers will move to such non-lethal physical force techniques as strikes or takedowns(forcing someone to fall), or to using pepper spray or Taser guns. A Taser is a weapon that shoots out long wires, stunning a target with an electric current. Finally, if threatened with serious bodily harm, police officers can use deadly force to protect themselves and others. Police, however, are not required to follow the use-of-force continuums in a set order.” The police officer may apply whatever amount of force is required by the circumstances of the confrontation”. If officers feel like they are being

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To begin with, excessive is the uncontested right of a police officer. The use of force to a police officer is necessary to apprehend or subdue a suspect of a committed crime. When a police officer use of force exceeds the necessary use of force of a particular situation to complete their lawful purpose. In particular, use force for self-defense, for example, a suspect tried to assault one of the police officers in a crime scene, so the other police officer teasers the suspect to protect his or her fellow officer. However, if the police officer uses his or her right to force for unlawful or self-defense purpose, it is then deemed unethical and illegal.

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Tasers would allow officers the ability to quickly resolve a violent confrontation without the need of added risk of further injury to all involved. The hope of the body cameras is that supervisors can monitor the behavior of their officers and also use the video footage as training opportunities on how officers could do better in the future. According to Lawrence (2015), “Proponents of the technology claim that benefits of body cameras include the ability to record all interactions and conversations between police and citizens’ and the ability to keep law enforcement officers accountable for the amount of force they use during altercations” (p. 615). With the level of authority that is given to officers to conduct their duties there needs to be a high level of accountability and body cameras could easily provide the desired level of accountability. As Klockars (2000) points out, “As the

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Legally, officers have the authority to use force to protect themselves and others from harm. The use of force only allows use within the standards of reasonableness. In the United States, the use of force is known as the use-of-force continuum, which provides law enforcement officers with guidelines that govern how much force is allowed to be used against a person in a given situation. The use of force continuum has five levels: officer presence, verbal commands, empty hand control, less lethal methods, and deadly force. Officers are not required to follow the different levels of the use-of-force continuum any particular order.

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Some officers could allow their anger and adrenaline interfere with their professional judgement. This is sometimes done by exerting excessive force for personal gratification.

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As defined by Egon Bittner, police use of force is the “distribution of non-negotiable coercive remedies.” Methods of force used by police officers must be non-negotiable, otherwise there would be no order in society when a suspect decide to resists. However, police officer do not have free reign to choose the level of force asserted to gain control of a resistive suspect. Force options listed in the use-of-force continuum of the Cobb County Police Department is broken down into 7 categories: officer presence, verbal command, soft empty hand control, Oleoresin Capsicum (OC)/Electronic Control Device (ECD), hard empty hand control, impact or other less-lethal weapon, and deadly force. When choosing a level of force, the following must be

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Some people argue that the tactics used by the police

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For officers, body cameras are used to encourage officers to follow department policies and deter the officers from engaging in misconduct, unethical behavior, and in instances of unjustified use of force. For civilians, being recorded during a police contact can prevent them from engaging in violent acts towards other civilians or police officers. Altogether, body cameras can be used to prevent cases of police misconduct, to deescalate situations, and be used as evidence in criminal investigations (David Yokum,

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A police officer involved in an encounter with shooting or in an unusual situation might recall details inaccurately because of the adrenaline in their system during the altercation. Blame cannot be put on the police officers, as this is often done unintentionally. They cannot be expected to remember every detail of a use-of-force situation, and administering body cameras would aid in correcting any inconsistencies. Incorporating body cameras would accurately portray the events that unfolded and clear up any questions or accusations towards the police officers. Additionally, using body cameras will discourage officers from purposefully filing inaccurate reports.

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With the use of body cameras, you see what the officers see. You can view the layout of the area as the officer arrives on scene. You will also have the ability to view the actions of a potential victim before an altercation, assault, or a shooting.

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By being conscious of their every move being watched, officers will be careful not to make any obscene choices when on duty. The cameras will be beneficial to both the officers, and the public as they take careful measures to make good

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Opponents may argue that body worn cameras should not be mandatory for police offi cers to wear while on duty. These individuals claimed that body cameras invade the privacy of citizens due to the fact that police offices are able to enter houses while the hammer is rolling. The public may see the body cameras as an invasion of privacy to them ignoring all the major benefits that come with the cameras that could be helpful to them in the long run. Citizens expect to have their actions recorded publicly by security cameras or by others but the do not expect to have the privacy of their home to be recorded and if a police officer that is wearing a body worn camera does a house search the civilians actions are going to be recorded.(Williams)

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Use of force is the amount of force used in a given situation during police work. The police are supposed to follow the continuum when it come to using force. This continuum is known as the “Use of Force Continuum”. Despite this, use of force is still a constant problem in policing. There are many cases where a cop are sued for using more force than necessary, sometimes on purpose and sometimes by accident.

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One might say, "Well cops have nothing to hide so it shouldn 't be a big problem for them to have the cameras right?" But regardless of the person who says that, police are humans too. Body cameras in policing will improve the accountability of each officer because people behave differently when they know they are being watched and police should feel the same way. The first reason why police should wear body cameras is because when police use the camera, the camera will

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The importance and prevalence of use of force by police is crucial to the community. With the usage of force, there are three forms, which are self-defense, people could use force against specifically such as prison guards, police force (White, 2015). Several law enforcement agencies use the method of TASER as another force option. There are several pros and cons when it comes to talking about TASER (Rappert, 2004). With the advantages with TASER being used, the TASER would attack the attacker without a high potential of killing them.

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Tony Farrar published an exploratory study applying the effects of deterrence theory in being watch towards law enforcement demonstrating the effects of body-cameras on officer’s behaviors. Farrar makes the point that, “most forms of species alter their behaviors once made aware that they are being observed” (Farrar 2013). With that in mind the study determined that those officers that wore body-cameras experienced twice as many use of force incidents (Farrar pg. 8). The author expresses the relationship between the dependent variable of use of force complaints compared to the independent variable involving body-cameras proved with a 95% confidence variable that body-cameras altered the behaviors of police officers dramatically.

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