Ever wonder why there is cameras attached to the top of stoplights? Cameras on stop lights are constitutional and extremely necessary.By knowing what they are, why it could be considered unconstitutional, and why it is constitutional one many understand why something like this is needed. Believe it or not, today there are cameras on a very large majority of stop lights. These cameras on stop lights are in no way hidden. They are clearly visible and there for the world to see. It is not like law enforcement has put these there as a way to sneak around on the public. They are there simply to record major events. Believe it or not, most cameras can not read the license plate numbers on vehicles. Although, the real question here is; what is the purpose of these cameras? Initially, these cameras are placed here to view the interaction of vehicles, but they can also protect a people. Unexpected and bad things happen everyday, so In the case of an accident it is all on camera. Which in the long run can support law enforcement's decisions in execution and further investigation. All in all, there are cameras on stop lights, but they are there for a good reason. Although with that being said, some people may argue …show more content…
First off, it can save lives. Interestingly, in the United States in the year 2012 alone, there was 133,000 people were injured due to motorists running red lights. Due to this there were more than 680 people that lost their lives by the cause of such accidents. Furthering this argument, running stop lights is against the law. When breaking any law there is punishment. Why should this be any different? It should not. No matter the person, when this law is broken they need to lose their right of privacy. Therefore, everyone has the right but when they break the law, they lose their personal right. It should now be clearly visible why cameras on stop lights are
I feel body cameras will bring more awareness to police departments when it comes to the honesty in their staff’s action when they are unsupervised. They can be used as hard evidence in court rooms, to help make the correct judgment on the situations in question. A case of which Officer Michael Slager fell victim to when the courts later changed their verdict after being presented with a video of what really happened.
A simple Google search will turn up hundreds of studies based on the effectiveness of emergency lighting on the road. Obviously, this wealth of information is too vast to summarize in one article; however, there is one study that sticks out when discussing whether red or blue emergency vehicle lights are easier to see on the road. In this article, we will go over a study released by Lt. James D. Wells Jr. on behalf of the Florida Highway Patrol. This study was released in 2004 and concentrates mainly on emergency lighting configurations and the effectiveness of these lights in helping to reduce collisions on the road and keeping officers and emergency first responders safer on the road.
In Houston, Texas alone there are around one hundred stoplights. Recently, a law has been drafted to place cameras on the stoplights and Houston and the surrounding suburbs. These "red-light cameras" or RLCs as they are called automatically take a picture of a vehicle breaking the law by running the stoplight and sends the owner a seventy-five dollar ticket. This method of ticketing is incredibly inefficient and should be removed. The camera system fails to notify the recipients of the tickets in a fair amount of time, does not take into account if the owner is driving, and according to the people of Houston should not even be in place. The current system that the red-light cameras are under is flawed and should be removed completely.
“A body-worn camera in public policing is a miniature audio and video recording device which allows recording of officers’ duties and citizen interaction,” notes Thomas K. Bud. Police body-cameras are significantly growing in popularity across Canada. While legislation has not confirmed definite rules regarding the use of body-cameras, local police departments have begun their implementation. Canadian police services involved in these projects include Toronto, Victoria, Edmonton, Calgary, and Amherstburg Police Services. The results of these projects have revealed mixed thoughts regarding body-camera effectiveness. Is it a good idea for police to wear body-cameras? While the cost of police wearing body cameras seems prohibitive, police wearing
This allows people to be recorded without their consent or even knowledge of the event when they are in a situation with an expectancy of privacy. In some cases this can be helpful when trying to catch a perpetrator however, it is still a violation of privacy. Freund also claims, “a person who is approached by a police officer wearing a body-worn camera cannot readily avoid having his identity recorded”(99). So, by the time a person was to realize they were being recorded, it would be to late for them to protect their identity, even if they had nothing to do with a crime or what was intended to be
Should police officers be mandated to wear body cameras? That is a question that has grown to be widely discussed in media, politics, and public. The death of Michael Brown due to a fatal shooting by a law enforcement officer inflamed the idea that police officers should wear body cameras (Griggs, Brandon). The opposing sides of such controversial questions both provide a strong reasonable argument that support each side. However, despite the critiques against body cameras, I believe the evidence that support the usage of body cameras to be overwhelmingly positive and the intention is of pure deeds. Police officers should be required to wear body cameras; because it will build a trust between law enforcement and the community, it will decrease
This requirement closes a loophole that previously protected officers when making pretextual stops: in cases where officers use minor traffic violations to stop vehicles that fit certain pretextual descriptions, they often issued warnings, which rarely involve any record keeping.’ (http://academic.udayton.edu/race/03justice/profiling02.htm).
Police officers with their body cameras: a history and back ground paper to answer the question if should all police officers wear body cameras, it is important to first look at the history and back ground of the topic. According to article of Journal of quantitative criminology, writers Ariel, Farrar, Sutherland, Body cameras have been given a new eye opener to people about the excessive use of force against their community members. Arial, Farrar, and Sutherland in the article state “The effect of police body warn cameras on use of force and citizens’ complaints against the police: A randomize controlled trial” describe their observation as:
Have you ever looked up while in a public place and noticed a camera watching you? While some people may be alarmed, others feel a sense of safety and protection. Electronic surveillance consists of cameras in public places to watch over the city streets or parks. Their purpose is to allow policemen and the state government to know when crime is happening and where in the city. Cameras provide a great advantage of protection over just having police officers patrol the cities. These men and women cannot be everywhere at one time, but the cameras can. Electronic surveillance should be accepted worldwide because it can identify criminals and decrease crime in cities.
There are some major upsides in having cameras in public places. In early 2013 two people set off bombs at the Boston marathon, which killed several people and injured hundreds. The city of Boston had cameras monitoring the streets, and was able to identify the bombers within two days. (La Vigne, Nancy) The FBI was able to catch them before they were able to carry out another planned attack in Times Square, which could have been much, more devastating. In addition to being able to solve crimes that have already happened by using cameras, we are also able to use them and the other technologies that go with it to prevent crime. The National Security Agency has reported that it has prevented several terrorist attacks since 2001 using new technology put in place to prevent the attacks. However, much of the NSA’s tactics have been criticized lately, though the majority of people still agree that it is worth it. Using cameras is also a cheap way to monitor an area. Having to employ several police officers to patrol an area can be expensive and those officers could be out doing more important jobs. When you have cam...
“Each light has a different preset wavelength designed to detect hair, fibers, and body fluids at crime scenes, these lights allow a crime scene to be processed faster and more thoroughly than ever before.” This technology is speedy and can help locate the whereabouts of criminals. The use of in-car camera systems has become very popular, especially by law enforcement. These cameras are used to record traffic stops and road violations of civilians. “From the time the first in-car cameras were installed to document roadside impaired-driving sobriety tests, the cameras have captured both intended and unintended video footage that has established their value. Most video recordings have resulted in convictions; many provide an expedited means to resolve citizen complaints, exonerate officers from accusations, and serve as police training videos.” Photo enforcement systems helps to maintain road safety by “automatically generating red light violations and/or speeding summons and as a result to greatly improve safety for the motoring public.” (Schultz,
...se of this technology, in order to avoid it being abused. However, because all this technology is relatively new, there are not really any policies that are enacted yet. This will all change in the future, now that the media and privacy advocates are starting to ask questions. Law enforcement security cameras clearly have many benefits to our society, and with the right policies in place; the negative aspects will pale in comparison.
Since surveillance cameras have been invented for security reasons at shopping malls and stores they have also been place in public areas such as stoplights, parking lots, hallways, bus stops, and more.
When having stop signs and traffic lights, people have a tendency to drive slower and look out for people walking in the middle of streets. To put a traffic light or a stop sign in a community, it takes a lot of work and planning from the community and the city to put one in. It is not cheap to do it either. The community first needs to take a petition around to everyone in the community and have them sign so they can take it to the board when the next city council meeting is. A couple residents will present it to the board, and they will decide weather or not to put it in or not. If not put in a lot of residents might be mad and bad things could happened to that part of the city.
The primary point of traffic laws is safety, but also keeping order. Following traffic laws is one of the most essential aspects of driving and can increase your safety as well as of the people around you. Knowing the traffic rules in our region and applying them can prevent us from getting involved in an car accident and save us the pain and costs of a traffic ticket due to a violation. If we didn’t have any traffic laws there would be chaos on the roads and many disasters could happen.