The recent protests in Ferguson, MO have brought the militarization of police departments to the forefront of the American psyche. Although their m-16s and weaponized tanks give law enforcement an unreasonable amount of power, there is one technology that could help restrain the police in the future - a camera. Ferguson police reportedly ordered civilians to turn off cameras and recording devices on Wednesday, and conveniently there was no working camera in the patrol vehicle that night. But what would have last night looked like if each police officer had to wear their own devices? In 2012, Rialto, a small city in Californias San Bernardino County, outfitted its police officers with small Body Cams to be worn at all times and record all working hours. They recorded full-color video for up to 12 hours, which was automatically uploaded at the end of each shift, where it could be held and analyzed in a central database. When researchers studied the effect of cameras on police behavior, the conclusions were striking. Within a year, the number of complaints filed against police officers in Rialto fell by 88 percent and use of force fell by 60 percent. As Rialto police chief told The New York Times, “When you put a camera on a police officer, they tend to behave a little better, follow the rules a little better.” Although the results of requiring police officers to wear cameras seems like an effective step in reducing police abuse, it raises an interesting question: do citizens really want police officers recording everyone’s action throughout the day? Is the decrease in potential police abuse worth the heightened surveillance state and consequential loss of privacy?
Posted on: Mon, 18 Aug 2014 18:58:25 +0000
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