Body cams for all police officers

Yes or no?

My opinion: Absolutely. Hold every single one of them accountable for all of their actions while enforcing the law. The good cops have nothing to worry about, so there should be no issues with this except for the cops who have something to hide.

Agreed. They're supposed to serve and protect US.

Not run us over with cars. amirite?

agreed, it can't hurt. All it can do is good. Plus if they were to fight a criminal it is more evidence against the criminal when put on trial.

Good idea

I have no problem with that idea.

@noone301994: Lol holy sh*t

Yes please, it would help out a lot with police mistrust to the point where people can only blame the system that holds them accountable or just look like cop haters

It could protect the police officers as well, but I'd rather an actual police officer weigh in on this.

more cams = more protection = more evidence = less privacy

Yes please.

Yes if and only if private citizens have the same right to record everything they see. In states with one party consent to recording, it makes perfect sense for police to record their actions, but there are many states where you have to get people's permission to record them, and I'm not okay with giving police anymore special privileges.

every cop in the nation having a body cam to view what they see.......so we are willingly approving the fact to be monitored when we are outside our homes?

Providing cameras that don't interfere with police work, don't malfunction during the course of police action, and are positioned in a way that provide a comprehensive view of what happens sounds like an expensive proposition and logistical conundrum. Not to mention that this doesn't necessarily solve the problem because camera feeds can be tampered with, especially in today's age of technology.

As for the privacy issue, it's not as though information that is acquired during the course of a police investigation becomes public record. Whenever the police conduct a background check or check bank accounts, that information is secured. To say that private citizens should be able to record everything they see because police use body cams in the course of police work is to say that individual bank records should be made public because the police have access to them. The fear is not in the existence of the power, but in the abuse of power by the police or by other groups that gain access to police data.

I'm all for body cams for police officers, I have been for years, but it's not that simple and doesn't resolve in one fell swoop this deep-seeded distrust in law enforcement that some of us have recently developed.

@manhunter_prime:

My privacy concerns are not hinged on whether or not the data goes public. My concern is that I do not want the government to have more power than the citizens. My primary objection to NSA spying is not whether or not that I think the NSA will make my phone calls public; it's that I don't want them to have my information in the first place because power corrupts.

Saying an officer recording their every working moment is like an officer searching banking records is incorrect. An officer has to have a specific warrant to get financial information on an individual. He has to prove probable cause to a judge. The constant camera solution is creating normally illegal recordings on every citizen with no probable cause of wrongdoing.

Again, I would prefer cops be allowed to record their daily work. In public, it makes sense to have the right to record, but private citizens need that right just as much as cops and for the same reasons. Illinois just passed a law which makes it even harder for private citizens to record people, so we are talking about increasing cops rights while decreasing private citizen rights, and that's a bad deal no matter how you slice it.

@noone301994: But bumper cars is so much more fun with living ragdolls.

I say yes.

Yes, so that evidence is solid when accusing a suspect or cop of a crime

I guess that can work.

I agree.

They're probably already doing that via satellite.

Police cams will not help prosecute cops who are caught practicing police brutality. Example: Eric Garner.

@sog7dc:

Satellite surveillance is already quite an invasion of privacy. Let's not give the government a hundred thousand more cameras for tracking.

@bogey:

I'm not for special rights of police recording, but having a record is not just about preventing crimes but about proving them. Stuff like Ferguson and Trayvon are debatable, but we actually know what happened with Garner and can then debate if it was justified rather than argue about what actually happened.

Tots

@noone301994: You can see the joy on his face.

@batwatch:

You are correct about the police having the right to record not being the exact same as the right to bank records. Perhaps there would not be as much judicial oversight when the recordings are made. Indeed, background checks done on beat cops will essentially be the only "line of defense" against that. But the dissemination of those recordings and their implications, as well as their use and relevance in a judicial case, will still be at the discretion of a judge, same as bank records. Recordings made and used at the discretion of police officers without authority of a judge or other power would be like police strong-arming banks or forging signatures on warrants to get access to bank records.

Yes, I know that it would be a lot easier to make those recordings than it is to wade haphazardly through bank records just for kicks. But that would just be the cost of installing those cameras. In return, we get more accountability, more accurate first-hand accounts, and more evidence. The risk to abuse of power is always going to be there, because our society empowers people, by election or by funding their training, to wield certain powers in service to society. We trust them and we install systems of accountability, but security and freedom will always fight for dominance as our society cycles through periods of crisis and prosperity. The fear of power corrupting will always be there. If we don't trust the people we empower, then we want to take steps to protect ourselves, and so we are a lot more reluctant to give them even more power, especially when that same power is not given to us. In that respect, I understand where you're coming from.

it it will stop the irrational whining

Superman vs Superman.

Yeah, I think we are on a very similar page. From my perspective however, the government has been getting more and more power, and every time a new crisis pops up, the solution suggested is usually giving the government even more power. I think they have more than enough, and it's time to push for more individual freedom as opposed to state freedom. I agree with you on the positives of cameras on officers, but the negative is an even larger surveillance state, and that's not a step I'm willing to take.

I understand that the use of the recordings could be regulated, but these powers are always abused. Rather than push for special privileges for one group, let's just push for greater freedom for all by loosening recording guidelines so that everyone can record in public. It will fix the problem, it is consistent, and it is equitable.

Yes.

Yes. Maybe with 100 video recordings of officers abusing their power because I honestly don't understand how the Eric Gardner case ended the way it did WITH the video footage. (+)

I don't see this to be very effective, a corrupt cop will somehow disable it like they always do to their dash cams when they come under fire.

A much cheaper solution that will also benefit the community is: A$$HOLES SHOULD STOP ACTING LIKE A$$HOLES!!

It wouldn't help.

We were actually discussing this in my Police Science course today. So far the arguments for it seem to outweigh the arguments opposing it. Personally, I don't really find the Big Brother fear to hold up when compared to the consequences of leaving such situations unsupervised. To me it sounds like a poor excuse to protect bad behavior under the guise of civil liberty.

It won't matter. Eric Garner was on video and the grand jury failed to indict the cop that murdered him.

another crisis.....

crisis on infinite earths

no, i want cops to treat me unfairly and have no evidence of the treatment so they can get away with it.

Though I don't think ALL cops are responsible for these brutalities that have been going on. I think this is definitely a great idea as it will more then likely prevent anything like it from going on in he future

lol. Got this notification 2 days later.

Why waste the tax dollars? Majority of the things they can do to you they'll get away with, with or without a cam.

You can't succeed in eliminating some of the corruption in the police force with body cams when they can probably shut them off with little difficulty.

Great idea. Question is, would it help at all.

Honestly, I don't think it'd be that effective. They had the whole Garner thing caught on tape and that didn't change anything. The problem goes so much deeper than just cameras and without fixing everything else, the cameras will merely create more outrage when the next police officer is let off the hook. Or I could be wrong, maybe it will create the kind of outrage we need especially from the more apathetic to call for change. Some people have to see it to believe it. Pick a force and give it a trial run to see its effectiveness.

Being on the path towards this career my concerns are this;

Cons

A)You will no longer have privacy in the sense they can film you while just watching you and that recording is now property of the police department.

B)It's expensive, who will fund it?

C) This gives stepping stones to erect camera towers like they do in the UK to just monitor civilians. If our officers can record you, then the city as whole will have the same power. How 1984 like.

Pros

A)Complaints will go way down because cops know they are on camera as well as citizens so now they can't make false accusations.

B)More time than not; the officers testimony will be backed up more by footage.

C) People will get the idea of the crap we put up with.

Robo cop in the making