Following several high-profile civilian deaths at the hands of police officers, many Americans have called for the mandatory use of body cameras by law enforcement as a means of curbing the excessive use of force and providing clear accounts of officers’ actions. Here are some of the pros and cons of body cameras for police officers:
PROS
- Provides accurate record of where police were when they turned off their body camera
- Helps to reinstate trust between Americans and surveillance
- Unlimited footage of police officers breathing heavily during a foot chase
- Turning camera askew allows officers to record beatings with stylish Dutch angles
- More things to watch
- Finally gives Americans glimpse at what it’s like to turn on that siren and gun it straight through a red light
CONS
- Major invasion of privacy for police officer and man he has in chokehold
- Costs money that could be used on machine guns and armored vehicles
- Police brutality might lose its mystique
- Those could be anyone’s arms bashing citizen with nightstick
- Distracting to officers who must now shift focus to cinematography and mise en scène
- Is still only going to be the irrefutable video evidence’s word against the police officer’s
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