Google Glass and Police Accountability

Ever since google introduced google glass to the world there have been mixed reactions to the new technology. Not everyone is comfortable with people wearing cameras on their head everywhere they go. Some people think it's a blatant invasion of privacy whereas some people think it's great. I personally like the fact that you can now buy a technology that allows you to record your daily interactions with other people. Not because I want other people to be recording me when they talk to me. I actually think that's perfectly fine. Why? Because I have no expectation of privacy in a public setting and nobody should either. In fact I think everyone should have the right to record anything they want in public no matter how creepy other people may think that person is. Nobody, especially not police officers should have any expectation of privacy in public. I think most important thing that will come out of google glass is that more people will be recording their's and other people's interactions with law enforcement officers.

Google glass has the potential to make law enforcement officers more accountable for their actions. Imagine if every interaction that a police officer has with a citizen is recorded. That police officer wouldn't think twice about abusing his or her power. There have been some police departments which have started requiring their officers to wear cameras at all times and the results were dramatic. Those departments reported a decrease in violence by police officers and a decrease in complaints against police officers. But I still don't think this would solve the problem of keeping the police accountable. The problem with these cameras was that the officer needed to turn them on manually before any interactions. Thus if an officer wanted to abuse his or her power all he or she needed to do was to not turn on their camera.

I personally see police corruption as one of the biggest threats to our society. There is no other person on the planet that can ruin a regular citizens life more than a cop on a power trip. The abuse by cops needs to end and they need to be held accountable. Google glass is just one way we can work to solve this issue.

I initially saw google glass as a joke. Just another avenue for google to serve ads to their users. I thought google would use glass to serve their users with pop up ads wherever they went. Fortunately, that hasn't happened. I never considered (until recently) that google glass could be used in such a way to solve this police accountability problem. And as the police get more militarized (as seen in Ferguson) and they keep receving weapons of war from the army this topic will become even more important. I predict we will see more and more abuses of power from the police and technology like google glass will be one of the few ways to combat it. The police may police us but who will police the police?