Argumentative Essay On Body Worn Cameras

There is a growing need to improve technology to determine an equal protecting of rights for the community and law enforcement. In 2014, President Obama formed the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing and charged it with developing recommendations to enhance trust between police and minority communities, as well as to improve police accountability” (White & Coldren, 2017). A year later the Task Force identified the use of body worn cameras (BWCs) as a solution to those objectives. U.S. Depart of Justice has implanted the use of the body worn camera by police departments around North America. A great deal has been learned about the impact and consequences of the technology. The appropriate use of body worn cameras by police and other

“When officers follow policy- they activated the BWC at the start of resident encounters and advised residents of the BWC- use of force declined by 37 percent” (White & Coldren, 2017). Police department’s duty is to uphold the law to the fullest extent possible. Integrity is a necessity when officers approach any situation with their BWC. Police officers must know that simply turning on a camera will be a crossroads in any incident. This will allow them to do the rite thing or not risking a potential excessive use of force complaint against him or her. Typically, people are on their best behavior when they know their being watched. This applies to citizens and law enforcement agencies. BWCs will ensure there is accountability for anyone on the footage. Use of force is not the issued, however, unnecessary use of force is. The attention giving to excessive use of force by police departments has been on the rise over the last few years. When police does not use BWCs in an appropriate manner it will cause “adverse results as increasing the use of force by 71 percent” (White & Coldren, 2017). For instance, the incident with Michael brown and Eric Garner was a key turning point in the evolution of excessive use of force. This case was controversial because the police department killed two unarmed men. There was video footage but it was not from a BWC. Which means, it did not tell the full story of exactly what the police and citizen did or said from their point of view. There are many unstable factors when videos are recorded from bystanders. The footage can start after an incident has already escalated, end recoding prior to the incidents conclusion, unclear audio, etc. Again, if a BWC is recording at the start of an encounter it will catch all pertinent evidence needed. According to White & Coldren, an evaluation of BWCs in the Rialto, California, Police