Are Cameras The Key?

We live in a world driven by technology.  Every where we look, someone is either on their cell phone, typing on their computer or using a camera of some sort. The Police forces throughout America also use this technology, especially cameras. There has been a significant increase in body cameras throughout the United States police forces due to the incidents like Michael Brown. However,  the question becomes, "Are these cameras really worth the cost, better yet, do they help to make a difference?"

To start, our government plans to put ample amounts of money into body cameras.  Many believe that these cameras will help law enforcement re-establish trust with the American people. According to  USA Today, the Obama administration will spend 20 million dollars, in order to implement body cameras throughout our country.  David Jackson from USA today, stated that, "of the $20 million grant announced Friday, the Justice Department said 17 million dollars will be devoted to "the purchase of body-worn cameras, $2 million for training and technical assistance and $1 million for the development of evaluation tools to study best practices"."  With all this money being put into this part of America's police forces it shouldn't be surprising that according to Katie Delong from Fox6news, out of the 18,000 police forces throughout our nation, one third of those are using body cameras.  However, we can imagine that with the millions of dollars being put into this technology more and more police forces across the country will have this technology.

With all this money being put into this new techonlogy we must ask, do these cameras really work? We first must look at the events that occurred in Ferguson, Missouri with Michael Brown.  Think about if the officer was wearing a body camera, a lot of unanswered questions would be answered as to what really took place between the white officer and young Michael Brown.  There was a case in Arizona however, where an officer was wearing a body camera while answering a domestic abuse call. As reported by Katie Delong from Fox6news, the man eventually pulled out a gun and shot the officer, and thanks to the body camera that he was wearing, all of the events were caught on tape.  In this case we really don't have any unanswered questions about the crime that took place due to the body camera.

We now understand that body cameras help us answer questions. But do they actually help decrease violence is the real question? There was a study done by the University of South Florida , according to the Huffington Post's, Nick Wing found that body cameras do decrease violence.  Throughout their study, which took place over the course of a year, the university studied 89 police officers.  Of those officers only 46 wore body cameras while the other 43 did not.  As the Huffington Post's, Nick Wing reported, the university found that "use-of-force incidents, dropped 53 percent among officers with cameras". The, University of South Florida  study also found a decrease in civilian injuries when officers wore body cameras.  There was also a study done in California by Barak Ariel, William Farrar and Alex Sutherland  according to the Huffington Post's, Nick Wing that did a similar experiment and they found that found a "59 percent drop in incidents when officers wore body cameras and 87% drop in complaints by citizens".  Clearly we see that the cameras do help, I mean after all the camera doesn't lie.

While body cameras do help to answer a lot of our questions and decrease violence, there are some out there that feel that they shouldn't be used.  Privacy is a major concern with these cameras; this idea that everything that officers are saying is being captured on tape concerns many.  Another major concern is the cost of these cameras, however if this device will help to develop trust back from the American people when it comes to America's police officers, then it's worth it.

As millions and millions of dollars are being put into this technology, we can only hope that these cameras will yet again help the American people to trust those that are there to protect them.  Time and time again studies have found that these cameras do help to decrease violence which can only help in combating police brutality.  Some may see this technology as pricey, but we must remember that cameras don't lie and these cameras may bring the American people and police officers together.



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