The Pros And Cons Of Police Body Cameras

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Police Body Cams
Body cameras are a hot topic since the riots broke out in Ferguson, MO. They have been used by some police departments for a while, but after the incident, the demand for more evidence recorded on cameras has risen highly. A belief that minorities are treated unfairly by the police officers raised many questions and concerns regarding relationships between citizens and officers. Therefore, the trust levels had drastically fallen, causing more issues for the police. Many people believe that the body cameras will help to figure out the existing problem, whereas in reality it has produced more uncertainty instead.
Privacy is one of the matters being discussed. Another one is whether people should give up their rights in order to obtain a better proof of a situation. A victim, a minor, a private property are examples of the many things where rights to privacy could be compromised. If a police department has a specific policy on body cameras where the recordings are allowed to go public after a certain amount of time, then all the information stored can be used to track the people recorded. Information such as their name, date of birth, phone number, and address will be available for anyone to see and use at their discretion. Additionally, a risk of being hacked by a domestic or foreign hacker can potentially
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Knowing how to manipulate the video, asking the right questions, and acting in a specific way behind the camera, provides an enormous amount of control of it and can lead to a wrong perception of the viewer. One of the elements the cameras are able to record is some citizen’s negative behavior, which can be used against them in court. Such an action could happen unintentionally, but the average public might view it as abuse of the power. It will even harder to convince other citizens because of different opinions and views on