250-word response 1 reference/intext citation
Due 11/2/2024
Gammill
Body-Worn Cameras in Policing: Pros and Cons for Agencies and the Public
Enhancing Accountability and Transparency
One of the primary advantages of BWCs is the potential to enhance police accountability and transparency. Research suggests that BWCs can impact officer’s behavior, for example, by preventing them from engaging in misconduct. This was supported by Lum et al. (2020), whereby the authors established that BWCs reduced the rate of complaints of officer misconduct as the officers were sure they were being captured on camera, thereby executing their duties as required. They also shield the officer from false complaints through videos that correct misunderstandings during interactions. For instance, in a 2021 event in Los Angeles, the body-worn camera footage proved that the officer used reasonable force in the scuffle, as alleged by the public. Thus, the BWCs act as independent observers who ‘record’ events of alleged police misconduct, therefore safeguarding officers and civilians alike.
Improving Police-Community Relations
BWCs have the potential to improve police-community relations by increasing public trust. When people understand that they will be recorded interacting with the police, they might feel safer because their treatment by the police will be preserved on record in case of a complaint. Out of transparency, power is distributed to the communities since they are assured that the agency is working to deliver power accountable. New data reveals that in those cities that apply BWCs, like Seattle, faith in police has been rising, especially when policies require the uploading of footage for the use of force incidences (Scholarworks & Matthews, 2022). BWCs may, therefore, assist in closing the trust deficit between police departments and society.
Evidence Collection for Investigations
As Lum et al. (2020) point out, the BWCs improve evidence collection by having video footage taken directly from the incident scene. Objective documentation is useful because it provides sound and video documentation of events unfolding.
Financial and Logistical Burden
While BWCs provide numerous benefits, they pose significant financial and logistical challenges for police agencies. A properly functioning and developed BWC program takes time, money, and materials on top of time and funding to have a place to store all the information. For instance, in 2022, the New York Police Department (NYPD) determined that what they spent on data storage and software maintenance for the BWC was not financeable compared to their initial estimated budgets. Each officer’s daily use of BWC footage required vast server space and secure storage measures (Scholarworks & Matthews, 2022). Growing to the program necessitates higher expenses and increased consumption of other resources, which, according to a police’s conception of the budget, may impact different areas deemed significant.
Privacy Concerns for Officers and Civilians
Privacy issues arise with BWCs, as many recorded interactions are sensitive or involve bystanders not part of a police investigation. These recordings can violate privacy laws for police officers and members of society if they are used in the public domain later on from the police side. Some issues to surface in 2023 included invasion of privacy when BWC footage from a domestic disagreement case in Chicago was aired for public viewing. For this reason, civil liberties activists argue that it should be protected as it exposes people to situations they do not have to enter to capture their images (Lum et al., 2020). To address these issues, it is further necessary to implement stringent measures regarding data access and archival to protect individuals’ privacy rights.
Limitations in Impacting Officer Behavior
Despite their intent, some evidence suggests that BWCs do not always yield the desired behavioral changes among officers. Scholarworks and Matthews (2022) discussed a notable study that identified that in some police departments, BWCs offered negligible effects in minimizing the use of force as some officers got used to the cameras. This discovery suggests that providing the officers with BWCs is insufficient to establish a shift in officers’ behavior both for the regular force and the surveillance team (Lum et al., 2020). Thus, there is a need to continue training alongside implementing BWC, developing and sharing standard operating procedures with clients to use and review these cameras to enhance desirable demeanor