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Should Police be Required to Wear Body Cameras?
With new "body cam" technology such as GoPro becoming more prominent in today's society, debate has arisen over whether police officers should be required to wear body cameras or not, so that every action they take while on duty can be recorded. Especially in light of current events (such as the death of Michael Brown), many feel that police should be required to wear body cameras to prevent injustices.
Personally, I feel that police should by all means wear body cameras - excluding the logistics of finding a cost effective method that does not interfere with an officers duties, there is no downside to requiring body cams. Such cameras would serve to provide video evidence, able to be referenced any time formal allegations are made against a police officers actions while on duty. In the event that a police officer acts unjustly, such video evidence could be used to convict an officer that willfully violates the rights of an innocent person (and with this knowledge, officers are unlikely to commit such violations of rights; furthermore, if this was to be standard policy of police departments, it would be unlikely that anyone prone to abuse the power of the badge would join the police force in the first place, if they knew their actions were to be constantly monitored - the only people joining the force, then, would be those morally upstanding individuals, capable or handling the power and responsibility bestowed upon an officer). On the other hand, in the event that an officer is accused of violating an innocent persons rights, when they in fact they were not violating anyone's rights, they would have video evidence to prove such: that they were carrying out their duties in a perfectly legal and acceptable manner.
Conceptually, there is no reason for officers not to don body cameras; however, the logistics of arming every officer in the nation with a body camera would present an obstacle. It would be wise for officers to consider wearing such a device, whether or not this is the policy of the local law enforcement.
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Current events have driven me to discuss both sides of the body cam issue in an unbiased manner