Police video Recordings

I read an article on the New York Times website titled Phone Cameras and Apps Help Speed Calls for Police Reform. The article discussed the developments of apps designed so that people can record an incident they see with the police, an incident where they find that the police officers’ actions are questionable. The app is then sent to an office to be reviewed and if wrongdoing is seen, the video can be used against the police in a trail. The article also discusses having police officers have cameras on them at all times so that the footage can be used to resolve any incidents where possible wrongdoings were committed.  I think overall this is very good. The more video footage we have the more I believe that the legal system can discover the truth of what happened during an incident.

               I am concerned when footage is leaked directly to the news. I feel like it is very easy for footage to be put on the news that misrepresents what actually happens. I think most of the time it is no one’s fault. The news wants to get the story out to the public as it is happening. They find a video source that shows part of the incident. It is very possible that this video does not tell the whole story. It feels like every time there is a cause in the media about this almost instantly everyone makes up their mind about who they think is justified in the video. I fear that this frenzy of discussion may in fact obscure the truth instead of bringing it out.  I am worried that this national discussion will negatively impact the trial that is going to hopefully happen over this incident. I am not saying that national discussion is bad, I am saying that I am concerned when national discussion about important topics get tied to a specific cause. Sometimes it feels like that people talking about the Michael Brown shooting where talking about police brutality as a whole. It almost felt like it was not possible to believe that police brutality was a huge problem without also having an opinion about this specific cause.

            With the possibility of being recorded with video on someone’s phone I hope that there will be fewer encounters in which the police violate their power. It is clearly a huge issue and I hope that it will not only make sure that police officers are correctly held reasonable but that we as a society have more trust for police officers. The link to the original New York Time article is below.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/04/09/technology/phone-cameras-and-apps-help-speed-calls-for-police-reform.html?ref=technology