Should police wear cameras while on duty?

[miamcchill]

Hi everyone! I'm new to CS but I figured I'd better make my first forum post sooner or later. Kind of a boring topic, I know, but this is the topic for the final debate this year for my team and I thought it would be nice to hear some other opinions.

[◈ llama ◈]

I personally think they should.'cause check this, most police are really untrustworthy so what if they shot someone with no reason? Then there won't be this huge court thing going on about whether or not he/she should be fired.

[Burrito Bunny]

I personally think they should.'cause check this, most police are really untrustworthy so what if they shot someone with no reason? Then there won't be this huge court thing going on about whether or not he/she should be fired.

What makes you think most police are untrustworthy? Plus, even if they had a camera on them there would still be a big court case should they shot some one because you can't be given a sentence until you're proven guilty (At least in the United States) and in order to get a sentence you must go to trail (court). And if a police offer randomly shot a citizen unprovoked they would not only be fired, they would go to jail, or possibly even be given death sentence depending on the circumstances.

I think police should were cameras when out in the field. Not because they might commit a crime but to instead gather evidence against the criminals they are trying to bring down. If they wore cameras the film could be used as evidence against people who resist arrest, assault the police, shot at them, etc. And, while its unfortunate people try to think the worst of cops, yes the film could be held against them should they commit a crime while on duty or fail to follow procedure. As soon as they are off duty the camera should be turned off too though. Police are also people and their privacy should not be disturbed.

[sleepy-head]

And if a police offer randomly shot a citizen unprovoked they would not only be fired, they would go to jail, or possibly even be given death sentence depending on the circumstances.

OK, but Eric Garner & Michael Brown, though.

personally, living in an area that does have a lot of police violence against people who are innocent (most recently a woman was attacked by police dogs, and an honor student was beaten by police, both were innocent), i think that it isn't unreasonable to be distrustful of police, especially as a latina POC. also, as a cashier, each of our registers has at least one camera on it, and we constantly do checks on the registers (our register near customer service & the lotto machine has about four or five cams on it). it is definitely not weird to be monitored on the job, and cops shouldn't be excluded from this.

[DELETE ACCOUNT;;]

i find it incredibly sad that i feel police SHOULD wear cameras honestly
police are supposed to be trustworthy and keeping peace, but with so much police violence i'm simply disgusted

but then again, there's no point if the police aren't going to get in trouble, anyway (i.e. eric garner case)
it disturbs me a lot

[Chasing Starlight]

I think it would be very costly and tough to enforce, but I'm not against it.. not really for it either. I think it could potentially be a good thing, though

[Midnight_Shadow18450]

I'm pro body cameras. And not just for police either.
Here in the UK there are several people who wear body cameras while on duty.

Police in some areas wear them to help not only gather evidence on criminals/criminal activities, but also to protect the police officers themselves. If someone made an allegation to the police (e.g. they claimed an officer assulted them), they could check the body camera footage to check if the allegation was true or false.

Ambulance workers sometimes wear them, as they can be used to gather evidence incase of assults/other incidents. Very sadly, paramedics/ambulance workers being attacked on the job is more common than people realise.

High Court Enforcement Officers sometimes wear them to protect them from false allegations, and to gather evidence of assults/incidents that may occur on the job.