Brandon Harrison

Mrs. Crist
English 4
April 14
Service Issue Paper

The police are under more pressure to perform at an all time best with all the attention
they are being swarmed with. Many states already have laws requiring police to wear body
cameras and many more are moving towards that. With all the police related deaths in the recent
years such as Eric Garner being choked to death to Mike Brown being gunned down to Sandra
Bland who was beaten brutally by a police officer at a traffic stop. All these incidents did not
have any police with body cameras with them we would know the whole truth about how the
altercations went down. If police were all equipped with body cameras there would be no
question if the officer did anything wrong. The police would behave a lot differently with body
cameras.
In 2014 an unarmed African American teenager by the name of Michael Brown
was shot and killed in Ferguson, Missouri. Many Witnesses came forward but they all do not
have the same story as some claim that the officer killed him in self-defense while others say he
was unarmed and the shooting was unjustified, but what if a camera had recorded the whole
encounter and it was like we were there when it happened? We would have a way better
understanding of how everything happened. Browns death and many more have sparked the
conversation on if police should be required to wear body cameras. In May the Obama
administration launched a 75 million dollar program to test the effectiveness of the devices. The
country wants to know what police are doing when they are on duty and how they are treating

people. Some critics of body cameras claim that they cost too much and they invade peoples
privacy. This also eliminates any of the he said she said situations that people and make it easier
to understand.
Examples of police using excessive force are all over the news and we have learned that
failing to obey a police directive can result in a girl being flipped out of her desk and yanked
across the room. With police acting like this, we look to possibly equipping them with body
cameras so we can furthermore understand the situations they are in. Do body cameras constitute
any type of illegal search or seizure? That just depends on where the officer is when this camera
is recording. If the officer is in a bathroom or locker room staff members and students will have
an expectation of privacy and expect to be safe from any type of illegal search or seizure. The
police would have established some reasonable suspicion before entering an area like that.
With body cameras becoming more and more evident across law enforcement it gives it a
transparency that we will be able to see how our police officers handle themselves. With the
police having the body camera it makes them more accountable because everything they do will
be recorded and documented. This will be very useful in a situation with many witnesses how
have different accounts of what actually happened. It works both ways those the police officer
may be protected from any false accusations of abuse or misconduct. In a recent study they
found that the number of complaints dropped from 25 to 3 after implicating body cameras. Also
by adding the body cameras you add an extra set of eyes and may be able to find some evidence
that a normal person missed in the moment.
The way some police have been acting recently have really lead to America looking
around wondering if these are really the people were suppose to trust. Their job is to protect and
serve at the end of the day that is all they should be doing. The fact that people in America do not

trust police is a ridiculous concept. Police have taken their power to far and if we want to keep
them in check then body cameras are the way to go. While they are on duty it should be on and if
it somehow cut off or they lost the recording should result in immediate termination for them
and they can not be trusted. The police work for the people at the end of the day and should act
as such, not as if they have more power or run the town or wherever they live.

HANDZEL, MICHELE V. "Police Cameras In School: Privacy Vs. Necessity." School

Administrator 73.3 (2016): 9.Professional Development Collection. Web. 14 Apr. 2016.
Tsin Yen, Koh. "Point: Body Cameras Increase Police Transparency And Accountability."
Points Of View: Body Cameras For Police Officers On Patrol (2016): 1. Points of View
Reference Center. Web. 14 Apr. 2016.