Body Cameras — Officer, Watch Your P’s and Q’s

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Homeland Security

5 min readMar 1, 2016

By Larry King

There have been several high profile cases recently that have brought police accountability to the attention of the public. Included among them is the August 2014 shooting of Michael Brown in Missouri and the choke-hold death of Eric Garner in New York.

There are many facets to this issue that need to be explored in order to understand what can be done to restore confidence in the police. If police actions and the consequent results are concerning, what can be done to bring about change? Should the effort to improve police conduct focus on areas such as training, procedures or culture?

Technology may be part of the solution to this challenge. Body cameras are small, pager-sized cameras that clip on to an officer’s uniform and record audio and video of the officer’s interactions with the public. Many law enforcement agencies have already begun to employ these devices. Can these on-officer recording systems be leveraged to enhance police conduct? Will this lead to more accountability as far police activities go?

How do body cameras affect police conduct and improve accountability? That is in the process of being determined. Additional studies will be required to draw conclusions as to the impact that body cameras will have in this context.

Are there concerns associated with the use of body cameras? Yes, there are. Often, as has happened in the past when the rights of individuals are pitted against that of society, a similar situation has developed in this arena. Will recordings of police officers lead to an erosion of law enforcement’s effectiveness? Is this something that will have to be tolerated in order for the society to be shielded from police misconduct? Even the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) admits that the challenge of on-officer cameras is the tension they create between their potential to invade privacy and the strong benefit in promoting police accountability. The privacy that the ACLU alludes relates to the concerns of government functioning as “Big Brother.” A segment of society feels that not every activity should be recorded.

Another issue is giving control of camera activation to officers. Procedures for continuous recordings raise many other privacy issues, for the public as well as for officers. For instance, crime victims (especially victims of rape, abuse, and other sensitive crimes), as well as witnesses, may be concerned about retaliation if seen cooperating with police and have very good reasons for not wanting police to record their interactions. Many issues can be resolved with the incorporation of solid procedures designed to maximize utility of this technology while ensuring that abuses and misuse do not occur.

Are there any indications that this approach will be effective? Yes, preliminary data reveals that police personnel who wear body cameras have fewer complaints of misconduct lodged against them. Why this is happening is perhaps not the most important factor. The fact that complaints are down directly relate to the concerns posed earlier, police conduct and accountability.

Body cameras also are a significant benefit to officers involved in activities that resulted in the use of force such as firearm discharges. Such actions are routinely investigated and the availability of video and audio is a powerful tool in determining the circumstances that lead to the incidents occurrence.

Let’s cut right to the chase. What do police officers have to fear about being recorded in the performance of duty? Some cops are worried that video recordings will be used a disciplinary tool for minor infractions. Perhaps there is a culture among law enforcement personnel that, as the last line of defense against anarchy, they need to have unfettered authority to handle situations as needed. Video recording may be viewed as a restriction that will hamper their ability to take whatever actions they deem necessary in answer to a problem. When bystanders record police actions, quite a few arrests have resulted for interfering with governmental activities. Is this coincidental or a pattern to be examined? If the cops are doing the right thing then they have nothing to worry about.

What is in store for body cameras down the road? As we have seen in the rapid advances of other devices such as cellular phones, technology improves over time as manufacturers modify the functionality of equipment in response to the needs of the users. Issues that are raised regarding this technology such as cost, use and storage of data, which seem to be problematic at this stage, will change over time as adaptations are made.

So the next time that you see a cop on the street, remember to smile because you might be on camera.

Originally published at medium.com on March 1, 2016.

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