Cameras on Cops

Police brutality has been on the rise in the recent past, or at very least, is being reported more and more heavily, thus bringing the issue into the public view. In the past few months alone I’ve heard of a number of cases of an officer or officers being unnecessarily violent toward a citizen, or even drawing and firing their firearms at people who do not apparently pose a threat.

Police Chief William A Farrar in Rialto, California has been experimenting with a solution to this problem. Providing his officers with miniature cameras equipped to record incidents. The cameras are very small, and could be easily placed on the officers cap, or glasses, or various other spots. The idea, chief Farrar says, was a hard sell to his officers, as having to be always equipped with a camera recording your actions is an uncomfortable thought. As some would say, it feels a bit ‘big brother-ish’. While this may be true, the accountability that that tiny cameras provided seemed to be very helpful.

It lead to a massive 88% decrease in citizen complaints about officers, and this was only after equipping half of the department’s officers with the cameras. Officers were far less likely to be violent when dealing with citizens on account of knowing their actions were being recorded. The cameras seemed to help with another problem in addition to decreasing police brutality, but also helped reduce false complains from citizens. There were cases when a citizen came into the department to complain about an officer, only to have the recoding brought forward showing the accusation to be incorrect by the recorded video by the camera the officer was wearing. The cameras are apparently quite visible and noticeable, even considering their size. So citizens would be more likely to be less aggressive themselves towards the officer who’s obviously wearing a camera.

Whether it be reducing police brutality, or reducing false complaints about officers, the cameras seemed to do nothing but help. The prospect of wearing a camera at all times would make me comfortable, but the officers are only required to wear them on duty. Provided measures were taken to assure the officers private lives were in no way being invaded by these cameras. I am in support of this idea. The accountability the cameras provide for both officers and citizens interacting with officers seems incredibly valuable.

Source:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/07/business/wearable-video-cameras-for-police-officers.html?_r=1&