Body cameras and their usage by the police officers, although seemingly effective, represent quite a controversial topic for the modern society.
With that said, a relatively recent incident involved two officers in a shooting and they both were wearing body cameras during the incident. The two officers were responding to a call – a woman with some sort of knife was spotted by witnesses. When the officers arrived on scene, a shooting occurred. The woman was injured and taken to a hospital. She later died because of the wounds she got during the shooting.
Both of the officers discharged their weapons and this is now the subject of the active investigation. Officers were wearing their body cameras during the incident and these cameras were already taken from them. All the videos from those cameras will be downloaded and thoroughly analyzed by the investigators. Furthermore, the police is also investigating all security cameras that were recording the scene from various angles on sight. The body cameras along with all the gathered info from other sources will help the investigators come to a definitive conclusion.
The usage of body cameras by the law enforcement authorities and police officers has been quite controversial for the last couple of years. On the one hand, the society is very enthusiastic about the idea and really hopes that this innovation will help keep peace and improve the overall quality of the police services. On the other hand, the law enforcement authorities themselves and some of the civilian rights groups, such as the ACLU – the American Civil Liberties Union are expressing their concerns about those body cams as well.
Namely, the ACLU sent a huge open letter to the law enforcement authorities stating that the body cameras use by the police are neglecting civil rights. After all, these cameras are going to record everything that is happening around the police officers and therefore will violate the rights for privacy. Hence, the purpose of those cameras to make the police officers’ service all the more transparent is becoming obsolete.
However, San Diego that adopted body cameras earlier and the official statistical data clearly demonstrates that the number of the overall complaints filed against the law enforcement officers significantly decreased. Namely, it resulted in an 88% decline, which is a very good result. Furthermore, studies also demonstrated that the police officers were using force much less and namely there was a registered 60% decline, which is also a great thing. Body cameras prove to be genuinely beneficial.
Nevertheless, there is also controversy in San Diego on the matter as well. After all, all the data and all the records from the body cameras are not being demonstrated to the public if these are subjects of the police investigation. Needless to say, such controversy raises plenty of questions. First of all, will all that data from the body cameras really mess up the investigation? Should the law enforcement officers be allowed to turn off the cameras when they choose to? Should the police use that video to hold other law enforcement officers liable for their actions? Should the police allow the videos from body cams to be transferred to social media as well as the TV? Who needs to have full access to the videos? Finally, what should be the length of the footage kept on the body cameras?
The ACLU letter received a quick response from the mayor of Seattle. Even though the Seattle PD previously declared that the department will not be releasing the footage to the public, the mayor said that in certain individual cases the footage may be released, but it largely depends on the circumstances. For instance, if the footage will help in dealing with sensitive matters and will stop the city from delving into violence, it will be released without any doubts, However, if we are talking about cases of domestic violence as well as rape victims and other similar matters, the footage does not need to be released to public. There was a relatively recent incident when a police officer was responding to a call and his body camera captured a domestic conflict between the victim and the abuser. This footage will prove to be invaluable in court, but it does not have to be shared with anyone else – the mayor is certain of it.
Moreover, the mayor claims that releasing all that footage online in real time will make people fear calling the police to begin with and this is the last thing that he actually wants. However, the police chief assured everyone that the footage will be delivered to the Police Commission of the city as well as its inspection general in case this will be necessary.
Yet, the ACLU representatives are claiming that they never wanted all the videos to be released. They meant only the videos that are demonstrating police misconduct as well as interactions with the law enforcement officers that may demonstrate the violation of civil rights.
One way or the other, despite how beneficial the body cameras may seem at first, there is also a negative side to them. After all, seeing how everything is recorded in real time, the police officer may at times be reluctant to act and civilians may be reluctant to report crimes, knowing that they will be recorded. It is a very sensitive matter that requires more thinking.
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