Can body cameras be a solution to police brutality

Vanessa Aguilar
3 min readMay 1, 2016

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Police brutality is a topic that is mentioned a lot on the news and can be seen anywhere on the internet. It is something that has been happening a lot in these past years and people should start learning about it. Not only has this topic caused a lot of controversies, but it is a problem that is harming a lot of people. That is why everyone should try and stop police violence. Not only should people stop police brutality but there should be new laws made. One major change that has been adapted is that some police officers wear body cameras. Therefore, I would like to know, should a law be made that says police officers should wear body cameras at all times?

Like every issue there is people who will agree and disagree with this method. Some might say it is a violation of their privacy while others will say it helps keeps the police violence down. Other people say well why should I care about whether police officers wear body cameras or not and to answer that, I would say it is because you also get affected by everything that happens. If a new law were passed making this mandatory it could solve the problem or at least try to. Everyone knows that the upcoming presidential election is important because it means a new president will be elected and may make this a law. This would mean that if you vote for someone who is against police brutality it is more likely they will try and find methods to stop it like using cameras. In comparison to if you vote for someone who sides with. This topic is important to everyone and everyone should start thinking about what should be done because at the end your vote could make a difference.

This idea of body cameras has been talked about before by President Barack Obama. He came up with many methods to try and stop police brutality and one method he mentioned was police officer getting body cameras. In order for this to happen Congress would have to fund the police departments which did happen to 73 law enforcement agencies. In addition to those 73 law enforcement agencies in South Florida a study was conducted on the Orlando Police Department. Some police officers wore cameras while others did not and the study showed that reports on police officers dropped. This shows that body cameras could be a step to stopping police brutality.

Although it seems like an easy task it is not because it does not guarantee that everything will be caught on camera. Also who would know if police officers turned off the cameras. Another issue would be whether the public would be able to see what was caught on footage. Body cameras have both negative and positive aspects to them. Some police officers are okay with this idea but other like Boston Police Commissioner William Evans have concerns. This issue will not get settled any time soon, but it is a good idea to start and think about what should be done. Do not just think about this method, but also think about how this will help fight against police brutality.

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