Aaron D. Alabama

Police Body Cameras (PRO)

In today's society many people are being brutally hurt or even killed by police officers using "extreme force." Due to this some departments have enforced body cameras, which has caused a decline in complaints from civilians and force from officers. Why not adopt it for all departments?

Dear Future President,

Today, we have seen way too many violent crimes involving police officers "abusing force." There have been many departments to adopt body cameras to have physical evidence of the complaints. A department in California was one of the first to start using body cameras several years ago, they have seen great success. In the first year of use the force from police officers has declined by 60% and the number of citizen complaints have decreased by 88%. Without these body cameras, both of these statistics could be even higher than they are today. In 2013 a university done a study that shows if a officer is wearing the camera they are less likely to be violent as well as the respondents. Just like with everything in today's society there are some "cons" to the body cameras. For instance, privacy not just for the police officer but also for the defendant if proven "not guilty" then the video is still there of them being arrested. Another issue that has been seen is the privacy of bystanders that where in the area when the video footage was captured being showed in court. When you sit down and weigh out the odds, you can see that if all police departments have body cameras we can reduce the number of fatalities and attacks on officers. I hope that you see this as efficient and help all police departments adopt body cameras for everyday use. 

Sincerely, 

Aaron.