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Essays on the benefits of police body cameras
Essays on the benefits of police body cameras
Why should the police wear body cams
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The first solution to the misuse of justice is to introduce body cameras into the police department. With body cameras police would be monitored and watched at all hours. Body cameras are a widely considered option in the fight against police brutality, with it being adopted in many places; Rialto, California is one of these places. Rialto recently started to in force body cameras on to their police department and has had miraculous results. In the first year of the cameras’ introduction, complaints against Rialto police officers fell by 88%, while use of force by officers fell by almost 60% (Husley, “California Town’s Simple Solution To Police Brutality...”). The first reason body cameras work so well is a better sense of security for
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the citizens.
“When you put a camera on a police officer, they tend to behave a little better, follow the rules a little better,” said Rialto Police Chief William A. Farrar “And if a citizen knows the officer is wearing a camera, chances are the citizen will behave a little better.” The sense of security causes citizens to not just have trust in their police force, but to also be on their best behavior. This is very important because even with the misuse of justice by our police forces, we cannot blame it all on them. The citizens also have a large role in police brutality, and if they are on their best behavior, there is less opportunity for police brutality. The second reason body cameras are a good idea is proper convictions. In many cases of police brutality there have been little to no witnesses and therefore we do not know what actually happen. For example, a cop could have been approached and attacked by someone, then been accused for police brutality. With the body cameras we would be able to have a proper conviction and would know exactly what had happened, protecting the innocent and convicting the criminal. With all of this information, it proves that body cameras would be a great solution to the misuse of justice by the police …show more content…
department. 7 The third and final solution to the misuse of justice would be to support the police and educate the youth.
This may seem like a very simple solution, but a very good one also. A large percent of police brutality comes from under educated areas, where the crime rate is too high for police to deal with. If people in these areas were better educated and supported the police, the amount of crime would drop rapidly. Police brutality is also becoming much more common in countries with unstable governments, and that is a great example of lack of support in the police department. The first reason that we need to educate the youth and support our police is that the crime rate will drop. With a lower crime rate, police would have less opportunities for brutality and would not deal with false accusations. With less accusations and less crime, citizens would have more reason to put trust into their police force, causing a full circle. The second reason we need to better educate our youth and support the police is a sense of respect from both parties. With respect in the police from the citizens, and respect in the citizens from the police, criminal acts could still occur but on a lower scale because the kids would be brought up knowing that police have a rough and terrifying job, and they would not have any reason to make it worse. In many famous cases police brutality is brought on by crime that has been committed. If the citizens were raised to have more respect for the police, many
of those crimes would not have been committed. The final reason we need to educate our youth is because the most crimes are committed by people who believe they cannot not survive on their own. Many kids drop out of high school and have trouble making money to support themselves, these kids often resort to crime as a form of support causing many opportunities for police brutality. If these kids were better educated they would not need crime to support themselves. With that said a good solution is to lower crime rate by better educating our youth and supporting our police department.
In today’s society, police officers are very cautious on how much force they can use on a suspect due to the police brutality going on right now. Police brutality is defined as the use of force exceeding what is necessary, many people argue that there should be new policies to determine how much force a police officer can use and also have laws that will convict officers who have killed people by using too much force, so that there is less incidents in the future.
Holmes, Malcolm D. "Minority threat and police brutality: Determinants of civil rights criminal complaints in US municipalities." Criminology 38.2 (2000): 343-368.
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:
Due to devastating events that have occurred between policemen and civilians; law enforcements find it liable for police officers to be suited with body cameras. In doing so it is thought to bring an increase in trust in the community, reduce brutality and crime, as well as elucidate good cops still around.
There have been lots of modern technologies introduced in the United States of America to assist law enforcement agencies with crime prevention. But the use of body-worn cameras by police personnel brings about many unanswered questions and debate. Rising questions about the use of body cam are from concern citizens and law enforcement personnel. In this present day America, the use body cameras by all law enforcement personnel and agencies are one of the controversial topics being discussed on a daily base. Body worn cameras were adopted due to the alleged police brutality cases: for instance, the case of Michael Brown, an African-American who was shot and killed by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, on August 2014, Eric Garner died as a result of being put in a chokehold by a New York police officer, and John Crawford, shot and killed by a police officer at a Walmart in Beavercreek, Ohio.
The intent of this study is to determine the effects between the independent variable of law enforcement professionals wearing body-cameras and the dependent variable of civilian’s willingness to talk to the police. The research questions that the data collected intends to answer are: Do civilians that come in contact with police deterred from talking to them about relevant information regarding a crime when there is a camera on the officer? What effects do police body-cameras have beyond accountability of law enforcement professionals? Will body-cameras damage communication between civilians and law enforcement that could result in a decrease in willingness to report crimes thus increasing crime itself?
Police officers should be required to wear body cameras because it will build a trust between law enforcement and the community, it will decrease the amount of complaints against police officers, and lastly it will decrease the amount of police abuse of authority. In addition, an officer is also more likely to behave in a more appropriate manner that follows standard operating procedures when encountering a civilian. “A 2013 report by the Department of Justice found that officers and civilians acted in a more positive manner when they were aware that a camera was present” (Griggs, Brandon). Critics claim that the use of body cameras is invasive of the officers and civilians privacy.
The struggle for more transparency in policing is an issue that has been waging on for years unchecked, but with necessary body cameras this problem will be able to be solved. With the use of body cameras, police procedure can become public knowledge. This will help prevent things like the Ferguson riots that took place after the decision to not indict officer Darren Wilson. Some people argue that the use of these body cameras could violate privacy laws because “Unlike previous forms of surveillance, body-cameras can enter private spaces more easily, and can focus on individuals more effectively” (Freund 95). However, this issue can be easily solved as unlike dash cameras, which are automatic, the body cameras need to be switched on. This allows the officer to use their discretion on when to actively record. This information can repair the already damaged trust between the police and the public. Use of cameras would also decrease the rate at which police receive complaints. According to Brucato “For the police, accountability offers the opportunity to exonerate themselves and their agencies from false complaints” (457). All the frivolous complaints and lawsuits that using a body camera prevents also serves a purpose to save money of the police department. In today 's society people only see the police incidents being recorded through the use of cellphone filmed
The research strategy divided the Rialto Police Department into two different shifts where one shift required to wear a body camera and the other was not required (Farrar, 2013). These two shifts were called experiment and control shifts. There was data collected from officers that used force during public contact and the number of complaints filed from the public for police misconduct (Farrar, 2013). The outcome of this experiment revealed how the use of body cameras can be beneficial in reducing the use of force. Toward the end of this experiment there was a decrease of police use of force about 60 percent and there was twice as many encounters that police officers had to use force without cameras than officers with cameras (Farrar, 2013). There was a significant decrease of complaints from the public about police misconduct about 80 percent (Farrar,
Police misconduct is as rampant as ever in America, and it has become a fixture of the news cycle. Police brutality is the use of any force exceeding that reasonably necessary to accomplish a lawful police purpose. The media is inevitably drawn toward tales of conflict, hence why there are so many crime and police stories on the news. Despite the increasing frequency of misbehaving cops, many Americans still maintain a high respect for the man in uniform. Still, police misconduct is a systemic problem, not just an anecdotal one. Here are some reasons why it is a problem. First, many departments do not provide adequate training in nonviolent solutions. With this, police are unfamiliar with what to
Police Brutality Police work is dangerous. Sometimes police put in situations that excessive force is needed. But, because some officers use these extreme measures in situations when it is not, police brutality should be addressed. The use of excessive force may or may not be large problem, but it should be looked into by both the police and the public. For those people who feel racism is not a factor in causing the use of excessive force, here is a startling fact. In Tampa Bay, Florida, five men died while in the custody of the
Thesis: By implementing Body cameras there will be more effective ways to monitor police activity the ability to protect civilians and law officials will greatly increase. Today I would like to share more with everyone the huge issue police brutality plays in our society and hopefully by the end of my speech you will want police officers to wear mandatory body cameras as well.
Police misconduct is as rampant as ever in America, and it has become a fixture of the news cycle. Police brutality is the use of any force exceeding that reasonably necessary to accomplish a lawful police purpose. The media is inevitably drawn toward tales of conflict, hence why there are so many crime and police stories on the news. Despite the increasing frequency of misbehaving cops, many Americans still maintain a high respect for the man in uniform. Still, police misconduct is a systemic problem, not just an anecdotal one. Here are some reasons why it is a problem. First, many departments don’t provide adequate training in nonviolent solutions. With this, police are unfamiliar with what to do in a non-violent situation, often resorting
When hearing the phrase “police brutality,” many people imagine batons cracking skulls, tasers electrocuting bodies and bullets penetrating innocent teens. While police officers have been known to use violence, police brutality does not occur as often as many believe. In many situations, officers have to act on impulse and curiosity, despite the backlash the media may create.
According to The Global Research News, in the last decade alone the number of people murdered by police has reached 5,000. This humanitarian crisis in the United States has become an alarming reality. Police officers have the capability to arrest, confiscate property, and use deadly force. Yet, many have abused their powers. Police brutality is on the rise whether society believes it or not because of the advancement in technology, low education and experience, racial profiling, and people’s refusal to obey.