Wearable Video Cameras for Police -Crime

When it comes to the case of a dispute between a police officer and a civilian over a dispute, who are we to believe? This is the common question asked over about the reported interactions between officers and civilians. To solve this problem police departments are starting to use miniaturized video cameras and microphones to capture interactions between civilians and police officers to record and have a record of situation in case of a complaint or a controversial situation. They can be attached to a collar, cap, or even to the side of an officers sunglasses, and they can even be attached to Taser weapons and set up to activate when the weapon is armed. Police chief Farrar in Rialto, California said many of his officers were against the cameras because they didn’t want “big brother” constantly looking over everything they do. He convinced them to do it because not only would it protect the civilians it would protect them against false accusations because civilians already record their interactions so why not have your own record as well? In the study that started February 2012 and ends July 2013 half of Farrar’s officers were randomly assigned video cameras each week of. Even with only have of the officers wearing a camera at a certain time the department had an overall 88% decrease of complaints compared to the previous year. The officers were also recorded as using for almost 60% less often, and the cases where force wasn’t used was twice as likely to have been applied by officers who were not wearing a camera during that shift. At first I didn’t agree with the police officers having cameras because I know how easy it is to alter footage to make it look one way, but I feel better knowing that the cameras are wireless sans they go directly to a server, not the officer himself. I agree that in most cases juries are quick to believe the officers over the civilian but I definitely don’t think its right. Many officers abuse their power which is a reason I think they didn’t want to be record. Knowing they’re being watch makes them more cautious about their actions. Even though they say most officers use the camera when they apply force I don’t believe that’s fair because they’re automatically biased based on the citations they choose and they obviously wouldn’t intentionally record something knew would put them in hot water.

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/04/07/business/wearable-video-cameras-for-police-officers.html?hp&_r=0

5;00pm Friday April 19