Essay On Body Cameras

Another alternative to decrease police misconduct is through the use of body cameras which would hold officers accountable for their actions. Often, commanding officers exercise little supervision over the daily activities of their officers. Not only do officers patrol alone, but they are authorized to quickly create solutions and sanctions on the spot. This provides officers the freedom to get away with both minor and major violations to outright crimes. A tactic to prevent this from occurring is to mount body cameras on officers while on duty. Stav Zhiv of Newsweek writes that body cameras “[reduce] the use of force by roughly 50 percent.” allowing for increased transparency and citizen views over police legitimacy. (1) Transparency, or

Body cameras can also improve police officer behavior, according to the Rialto police department, when implementing a body – worn camera program, citizen complaints against police declined by 88 percent in 2011 (White 20). Supporters of body - worn cameras argue that the video evidence can be used to facilitate the arrest and prosecution of offenders, since the footage is a permanent record of the events that had occurred. Using this footage, officers will be able to face the consequences of their actions, due to the footage significantly strengthening the prosecution’s case (White 24). Finally, body - worn cameras can serve as an important training tool for officers. In the Miami Police Department, officers have been using body -worn cameras in the training academy since 2012. Ian Moffitt, chief of the Miami police department , emphasizes that body cameras can be used to “record a situation, a scenario in training, and then [officers can] go back and look at [the footage] and show the student, the recruit, what they did good, what they did bad, and [what they can] improve on”