Safety doesn’t happen by accident. Police officers merged with engineers have been able to create a way to help increase the safety, improve police accountability, and provide a good tool for learning from mistakes. This useful and convenient invention is a police body camera. Police body cameras are as simple as they sound and are generally cameras that police officers can place on their suit while dealing with crime. All the benefits that come from the simple technology can change the public’s perspective and provide safety for everyone. This technology will only benefit and shape the world.
“Don’t cause two tragedies over one.” – Oscar Wilde. While police officers try to save someone they get hurt themselves. “Police body cameras increase the safety of the public and the police. A study in Rialto, CA, the first US city to trial police body cameras, found an over 50% reduction in the total number of use of force incidents by police officers when body cameras were worn; complaints against officers fell from 28 in the year prior to the study to 3 during the year of the trial.” (Farrar, Tony, “Self-Awareness to Being Watched and Socially-Desirable Behavior: A Field Experiment on the Effect of Body-Worn Cameras on Police Use-Of-Force). After using body cameras, police officers found many reasons to not use force, causing a major reduction in complaints along with providing a safer environment for society. Another study in California conveys the concept of safety, and it states, “In San Diego, CA, use of body cameras coincided with a 16.4% decrease in high-level use of force (Tasers, pepper spray, firearms) and a 25.3% increase in low-level use of force (controlled holds and Taser warnings).” (Garrick, David “Report: SDPD Body Cameras Reducing Misconduct, Aggressive Use of Force”). The police officers in the study had found that there weren’t as many people physically attacking the officers and instead being more calm as they had seen the camera. People in general act differently in front of a camera and the majority of them act positively, which creates a safer space for everyone.
It’s only getting harder to trust the police and police body cameras can help verify the accusations. Police body cameras provide complete evidence that can prove a scenario in any circumstance. In brief, police body cameras improve police reliability and protect officers from false accusations of misconduct. In addition, police officers have been found guilty instead of the accused suspect. “In Texas, a police officer was fired and charged with murder after body-worn camera footage emerged which contradicted his initial statement in the shooting of an unarmed youth.” (Wiley, Miley,”Body Cameras Help Everyone – Including the Police”) Jordan Edwards was the victim of the crime and her family had gotten justice due to the video evidence. Victims can now get justice that they could never have before. An equally important argument includes the protection of heroic officers themselves. “In San Diego, CA, the use of body cameras provided the necessary evidence to exonerate police officers falsely accused of misconduct – the number of severe misconduct allegations deemed false increased 2.4%, and the number of officers exonerated for less severe allegations related to conduct, courtesy, procedure, and service increased 6.5%.” (Garrick, David,”Report: SDPD Body Cameras Reducing Misconduct, Aggressive Use of Force”) The body cameras are forcing the truth to come out and causing people to be more honest.
In today’s society, people are always the ones making choices and changing the world. In fact, police body cameras have strong support from members of the public. “A YouGov poll found that 92% of Americans support police body cameras with 55% willing to pay more in taxes to equip local police.” (Ekins, Emily, “Cato/YouGov Poll: 92% Support Police Body Cameras, 55% Willing to Pay More in Taxes to Equip Local Police”) On the whole, the majority of American would appreciate the use of police body cameras and half of them would even pay to contribute to the justice of the world. To add on, police body cameras are a good tool for learning. “The Miami Police Department has been using body cameras for training since 2012. Police Major Ian Moffitt says, “we can record a situation, a scenario in training, and then go back and look at it and show the student, the recruit, the officer what they did good, what they did bad, and [what they can] improve on.”” ( D. White, Michael, “Police Officer Body-Worn Cameras: Assessing the Evidence”) Police officers can learn how to do things better and how to fix their mistakes. This will prevent pointless and repetitive mistakes to help better our police officers.
Police body cameras are in use around the world from Australia to Uruguay. They have shaped our world and changed lives. We were able to get justice for crimes we were unaware of and prevent physical abuse. Police body cameras have helped increase the safety, improve police accountability, and have provided a great tool to teach police officers. The pros completely take over the cons and we can now understand who was the real criminal along with changing everyone’s perspective.
2019-4-16-1555450218