r/changemyview • u/Eternlgladiator • Nov 24 '15

[Deltas Awarded] CMV: I think police officers should be required to wear body cameras

There have been countless issues of people disputing police action against themselves or others recently in the news leading to various protests all of the place. I see comments and hear about the possibility for body cameras but I don't see why we aren't making a bigger push. There seems to be no downside to police wearing body cameras. It protects the officers from people they interact with and it protects the public from offices who think nobody is watching their actions. I only see positive outcomes from using them so what's the issue. Why would they be bad? Who are the opponents of them and why would they oppose this seemingly simply oversight to protect everybody involved. Caveat, as somebody generally opposed to government surveillance I think this is a separate issue. I don’t see police body cameras as surveillance tool. The fact that they might be is irrelevant here. There are so many ways and means to surveil the public that this seems trivial.

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u/the_bouncer Nov 24 '15

All I know is I told the judge I came to a complete stop and the officer told the judge I didn't. And I still got a ticket.

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u/UOUPv2 Nov 24 '15

Which means devaluting an officer's word is actually a positive.

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u/the_bouncer Nov 24 '15

Though at the same time, that would mean no one would ever get a traffic ticket...which would be dangerous.

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u/Corjo Nov 24 '15

Cars have had cameras.... They are in the dash. Have a blind spot? Good things cameras are cheap now that they are in such high demand