Police Body Cameras y/n (taken from ask the person below you a question)

Should the police be required to wear cameras on their bodies, while on duty?

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Originally Posted by Iain Sparrow

Police officers should not wear body cams.
I'm really surprised there's seemingly so little debate on the matter; what of the privacy of those being arrested, and by law are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law? What of the privacy of witnesses being questioned, who may want to remain anonymous for various reasons, such as there own personal safety and threat of retaliation from the accused.

Body cams are a slippery slope, that inevitably leads to Global Warming.;)

Would you be willing to wear a body cam at work?

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Originally Posted by Clopin

The videos aren't going to be uploaded to YouTube or anything... There are 900'000 officers in the U.S so you're looking at over a million hours of footage (at least) every day. This isn't feasibly going to monitored by anyone and will exist as evidence in cases where it needs to be looked at; such as when lethal force has been used and there is a question as to whether it was legitimate self defense or otherwise justified or a gross use of excess force. It's important to know.

As for witnesses, this has already been solved with voice scramblers and... not showing their face, so that's a total non issue.

Innocent until proven guilty means you somehow can't be filmed? Okay, why?

And my job? Well actually I work in childcare and if there was some reason the public wanted body cams installed (for example if childcare workers were molesting or suspected of molesting their charges at an endemic rate) then I would go along with it. The comparison is pretty stupid though; the police are targeted for body cams over say, office workers, or teachers, because they carry guns and are authorized to KILL PEOPLE in extreme situations, which is totally unique to law enforcement.

How much popcorn is too much?

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Originally Posted by Iain Sparrow

Really, you trust public servants to guard your privacy... are you insane?

Will the police have to tell everyone they encounter, or even pass by, that they are being recorded – with the intent that the recording may be used against them? What of filming inside an eyewitnesses house, it would be a breach of an innocent’s privacy. How long is the video retained, where and what government entity would manage the millions of hours of footage, who all has access, will 'Right to Information' laws apply?

And btw, "deadly force" is not unique to law enforcement.
Self defense laws, especially here in Florida, include deadly force... why not force everyone to wear body cams? Public safety is certainly more important than individual freedoms, isn't it?

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Originally Posted by Clopin

Uh huh, better to trust public servants to wield deadly force with little to no accountability right? Police body cams aren't so the police can institute a big brother state where they film the inside of your house (the horror), they are to protect individual freedoms in the face of excessive police violence, or to protect police officers from undue recriminations when suspected of using unnecessary force, when the force was really justified.

Forcing everyone to wear a body cam at all times is not even close to analogous to having police officers wear them while on duty, performing their jobs as public servants who are given a large amount of power, including the power to use deadly force if necessary and who are required to be responsible while wielding this power.

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I don't object to body cams (although I haven't the expertise to guess how valuable they would be at protecting the public). Here in the U.S. many police forces have cameras on their police cars, and every traffic stop is recorded. Although the cameras may protect the public from the police, they also protect the police from the public. They protect policemen from false accusations. They help identify criminals. If someone leaps out of his car, opens fire on the cops, and runs, the cruiser cameras can often identify him, so he can be arrested. The value of body cams in protecting the public from inappropriate and illegal police violence is probably minimal compared to the overall benefits of bodycams (I'm just guessing, but really bad cops could probably figure out how to circumvent the bodycams, while criminals would be less likely to figure it out).

I have no idea how much body cams would cost. It's certainly possible that if we spent the money on (as just one possible example) more training for policemen, that would be MORE effective at protecting both the public and the police, but I don't know. Still, it's useful to consider whether there might be better uses for the same funds. Bodycams for the cops, or health care for indigent infants (assuming we can't afford both)?

Siphon some out of your "defense" budget.

Good idea. However, here in the U.S. the police are funded by cities, counties, and states (the FBI is federal, but minor) -- the military by the Federal government. I looked it up: the Eugene Police department has 180 officers, 120 non-officer employees, and a budget of $39 million a year. Body cams would probably represent a small (but significant) portion of that budget. They would be valuable, but I have no idea whether they would be as valuable as an alternative use of the money (even within the department budget).

Good topic; I'm definitely on your side in the debate, Clopin - it sees like a good measure to prevent abuses. As for the cost you make an excellent point as well.

Ecurb has a good point re. the expense. I'll add a few more potential issues: 1) Any camera can only capture a very small part of an officer's complete field of vision/awareness; 2) in a conflict, especially physical melee, that camera's picture will likely be very shaky and unsteadily focused (and if he's being shot at, he's not going to prioritize the camera's picture over getting and keeping cover), and 3) the logistics of actually capturing and storing the data from that many people who are constantly on the move.

I do believe that citizens should always have the right to record police activity. I also don't think dashboard cams in the cars should be a problem.