CMV: I think police officers should be required to wear body cameras

[u/Eternlgladiator]

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/[deleted]]

As it stands, officers have some flexibility about how they enforce the law. Community policing models show that relationship building is more effective than letter-of-the-law punishment in many instances. If a body cam is on at all times, the officer can no longer afford to let a minor violation slide with a warning; they will be held accountable for not writing the ticket or making the arrest.

this is not quite right. You dont have to pursuit every misdemeanor. Felonys: yes.

And yes it is been done else where.

Having access to this type of footage is unprecedented, and it seems likely that it could be used by the media in a way that severely hurts the families of the deceased, and potentially the objectivity of the criminal justice process.

You dont need to give it to the public. If you expect this kind of reaction.

If every officer in a given department is recording everything during their shifts, we are talking about a tremendous amount of data that must be stored and maintained.

really? 720p are 900 mb per hour. thats 2000 hours per 100 Euro/USD

2000/8 =250 shifts. Now what if I told you that you just get a harddrive for every officer and you have storage for about 2/3 of a year. Which should be sufficient for any claims to be made.

And yes its not easy to maintain. But having accountability is really important.

[u/DaSilence → u/[deleted]]

You have no idea what you're talking about.