Should police wear body cameras? While video can tell us a lot about encounters between the police and the public, body cams also raise concerns about privacy.

AuthorMajerol, Veronica
PositionNATIONAL

When Michael Brown, an unarmed black teenager, was fatally shot by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri, in August 2014, it led to weeks of unrest and a national debate about police conduct, especially with black suspects.

Some witnesses confirmed Officer Darren Wilson's account that he'd shot Brown in self-defense. Others said Brown didn't pose a threat and that the shooting amounted to murder. A grand jury decided not to charge Wilson with a crime, but what really happened that night? If the encounter had been captured on video, some have argued, we'd know.

Now, in the aftermath of Brown's death, as well as those of other black men who died during encounters with police in the past year--like Eric Garner in New York; Walter Scott in North Charleston, South Carolina; and Freddie Gray in Baltimore--there's a push to require more police officers to wear body cameras. In May, the Obama administration launched a $75 million program to test their effectiveness, with plans to distribute 50,000 of them to police by 2018. And in June, Congress passed a resolution urging state and local police departments nationwide to use body cameras.

"In all the incidents that we've been hearing about since Ferguson last year, we've seen that the community wants to know what the police are doing," says Lindsay Miller of the Police Executive Research Forum, an independent think tank that studies police practices. "Body cameras are a good way to show that."

Car Accidents & Assaults

Police cameras are actually nothing new. Dashcams in police cars date back to at least the 1990s, and in recent years, many police departments have begun using body cameras, which allow officers to record when they're outside of their cars.

Though the Fourth Amendment protects Americans from "unreasonable searches and seizures," there are no restrictions on police--or anyone else--recording you in public. (The Amendment requires police to get a court-issued warrant to enter your home; but it's unclear whether they may record you in your home without your permission.)

Most police departments require officers to press "record" only when there's a service call--anything from a car accident to an assault. In cases when using a video camera might be impractical or insensitive--like when children are involved--officers are generally allowed to use their own discretion about whether to record.

Research shows that body cameras can help de-escalate tense situations and make both officers and...

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