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Hannah Benton
Mrs. DeBock
English 4
4 March 2015
Body Cameras
Body cameras are becoming more important and needed in the police force. The recent
incidents occurring with Michael Brown, Eric Garner, and many more have been thought to have
a different outcome if the police officers had body cameras. Even though some people have the
opinion that the cameras will not stop police brutality, and cameras will only get one side of the
action. Tampas police force is allowing a UFS criminologist watch all of the captured video. The
New Orleans police department (NOPD) hopes that body cameras will help find evidence.
Therefore, body cameras should be a part of a policemans uniform because they can help
improve actions among both parties concerned and provide evidence for court cases, even if the
videotaping could violate the Fourth Amendment.
A habit is able to be broken in twenty-one days. How long will it take to improve the
behavior of not only the accused, but the officer as well? The officer wearing the camera cannot
modify or delete the video being taken, and must have the camera taping during every encounter
with the police. Hansford says that body cameras could do more harm than good to the cause of
protecting citizens from police violence. The cameras, which are pinned to the police officers
chest, capture the civilians actions but none of the police (Hansford). However, the Fourth

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Amendment, which prohibits unreasonable search and seizure can be violated by being recorded
by a body camera on an officer (Hansford). However, the human rights activist and law professor
at Saint Louis University, Justin Hansford, mentioned that they have not fully analyzed the
Fourth Amendment breach of consistent videotaping of the civilians.
Finding evidence could take a long time due to the evaluation of the case. The New
Orleans Police Department (NOPD) is requiring the officers to record any encounter, for
however long, until all police action has concluded (NOLA Police Hope Body Cameras Provide
Important Evidence). Therefore, the video on the cameras can be used in a court case. Mrs.
Susan Hutson, the New Orleans independent police monitor, who is talking in a broadcast, tells
Simon about a policy. This policy states clear violations that can get officers in a predicament.
Body cameras are just a piece of evidence and can be used against either the officer or the
civilian (NOLA Police Hope Body Cameras Provide Important Evidence). According to
Hutson in NOLA Police Hope Body Cameras Provide Important Evidence, the cameras are all
about the evidence.
Is it capable to see the change of behavior from watching behind the lens of the camera?
According to Richard Danielson, there is a way. From the University of South Florida
criminologist Wesley Jennings will study what effect the cameras have on citizen complaints by
comparing these videos to other videos taken before (Danielson). Jennings, the criminologist, has
done this experiment before and will conduct this for a yearlong study, and will compare the
videos to the first officers with body cameras. These videos cannot be modified or deleted and
will also have a manifest permanent time stamp (Danielson).

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Therefore, body cameras should be a part of a policemans uniform because they can help
improve actions among both parties concerned, and provide evidence for court cases, even if the
videotaping could violate the Fourth Amendment. Just because the police have body cameras
does not mean that they will follow each and every policy procedure to the exact meaning, it is
only a shot in the dark to try and fix the brutality and miscommunication between both the
officer and civilian. Body cameras are only the start of the ways that police can change the
encounter with the citizen.