Body Cams on Cops: Yes? No? Maybe So?

[Kaddoc]

If it will make the liberals and cop haters shut up, then by all means use a body cam.

 

[govangogh]

All I'm saying is that I know I was on constant video surveillance while working at the deli, so I don't see why the dudes with guns shouldn't be held to the same level of accountability while on duty.

 

[Kaddoc]

All I'm saying is that I know I was on constant video surveillance while working at the deli, so I don't see why the dudes with guns shouldn't be held to the same level of accountability while on duty.

Don't get me wrong, cops should be held accountable like everyone else. I don't see why the few bad apples on the force have to make things difficult for the ones who are accountable.

It's part of a dangerous trend we got in society now that we have to punish everyone else because of a few hard cases not wanting to follow the rules like any other decent person. As for you working at the the deli perhaps some idiot done something they weren't supposed to and thus the reason why you and others are being watched constantly. Then again that's just my take on it.

I truly think the Body Cams will not make that much of a difference because you still have those who think the police should be disarmed and do their job with both hands tied behind their back and by then what will be the point in having a police force? It seems to me these cop haters/anarchists don't want any semblance of police, period. As long as you got politics into this, nothing will get truly solved. Body Cams will end up being another metaphorical and literal band-aid on a festering wound turning gangrene.

 

[govangogh]

Don't get me wrong, cops should be held accountable like everyone else. I don't see why the few bad apples on the force have to make things difficult for the ones who are accountable.

It's part of a dangerous trend we got in society now that we have to punish everyone else because of a few hard cases not wanting to follow the rules like any other decent person. As for you working at the the deli perhaps some idiot done something they weren't supposed to and thus the reason why you and others are being watched constantly. Then again that's just my take on it.

I truly think the Body Cams will not make that much of a difference because you still have those who think the police should be disarmed and do their job with both hands tied behind their back and by then what will be the point in having a police force? It seems to me these cop haters/anarchists don't want any semblance of police, period. As long as you got politics into this, nothing will get truly solved. Body Cams will end up being another metaphorical and literal band-aid on a festering wound turning gangrene.

???????????

There are security cameras in almost every single chain store ever. My deli (which is in a grocery store) is not a special case. They help as evidence if either the employees or customers are doing something shady. Every time you walk into WalMart you are on camera in case you get it in your head to do something illegal. There are cameras in every hallway of my school. I really don't mind and they've helped clear up situations before.

You give someone a gun. You should probably keep an eye on them. Body cams offer a possibility to keep the he said she said to a minimum.

 

[Kaddoc]

Suffice it to say I'm anti-Big Brother and do not like cameras, period.

 

[Hellis]

Suffice it to say I'm anti-Big Brother and do not like cameras, period.

You are anti-big brother but you mindlessly defend the police and countermeasures to stifle a trend of increasing police brutality? YOu are anti-bigbrother but your ok with a unchecked policeforce who has the power to beat you half to death, shoot you or worse and in most cases get away scot free? You make no sense.

 

[Kaddoc]

You are anti-big brother but you mindlessly defend the police and countermeasures to stifle a trend of increasing police brutality? YOu are anti-bigbrother but your ok with a unchecked policeforce who has the power to beat you half to death, shoot you or worse and in most cases get away scot free? You make no sense.

You're jumping to conclusions.

I do not "mindlessly" defend the police. I understand there are plenty of bad cops out there who are akin to bully with badges, however that is NOT THE ENTIRE force. The media and political ideologues like to paint everyone who is a cop as these folks we see on the news or on some cop horror story as trigger happy morons.

I'm not okay with anything going unchecked, do not put words into my text or me and you are going to have serious problems. There is a better way to attack the problem rather than letting the Body Cam but an automatic fix-all. This issue is more complex than that, unfortunately. Just because there is a camera there does not mean it is automatically going to fix the problem. Society has bred some rather brazen folks these days.

Interesting how someone like you who is from "Viking land" you regurgitate the same talking points as if you were living there in Baltimore yourself. I don't know much about the police issues there in "Viking land" but I am very sure they don't have huge metropolitan issues like we got here in Eagle land with dysfunctional city governments run amok.

 

[Gwazi Magnum]

Just because there is a camera there does not mean it is automatically going to fix the problem.

I can't speak for others, but I'm not expecting it too honestly.
But it can help, it will contribute to catching or preventing more cases of police violence, violent arrestee's, name anything that might pop up on the field where footage could help and the cameras would increase the likelihood we get it.
It's not 100% fix or catch all, nothing will be. But it will at least nudge us in the right direction.

 

[Wolk]

You know, regardless of whether I agree or disagree with body cams, I wonder if they grasp the problem at the right spot at all. Because in Germany for example, you can only use dashcams if you don't publish the recordings and don't give them to third parties (like the police), nor is it allowed to operate one with these intentions (remove for some police cars). German police are currently testing body cameras that record only video (no audio) and can be turned off with a buttonpress on a remote at the arm of the officer, who has "video surveillance" written on the front and the back of him, the main purpose beeing to protect them from aggression while checking identities and settling disputes. Regardless, they find that installing body cams on every police officer would be "not right" and a nationwide use "unnecessary", because the utilization of weapons is the extreme exception in Germany. In the last 6 years we had 14 people killed by police, whereas there are about 2200 in the USA, and I know that the USA is about 30 times larger and 4 times more populated than Germany, but you could even multiply these values by these values and you'd get 1680, which of course is still lower than 2200. Needless to say, Germany's population density is about seven times as high as America's, and police killings do not scale with country size, otherwise Canada would be in a world of hurt (they've got ~60 police killings in the last 6 years). Now I know police brutality doesn't always lead to police killing and I'm not trying to say that Germany is great and you should all praise us, we had that already last century and it didn't work out, besides it's kind of fucking stupid. I used Germany because I live here and know that law enforcement works well. Obviously something is wrong with the police in America, otherwise you wouldn't feel the need to put your officers under surveillance. Is there not another way to reduce police brutality? Perhaps restricting the use of weapons and punishing brutality harder? Maybe use body cams for a while to aid in an attempt to reduce brutality and accusations to the point where you don't need them anymore? I don't know. Rambleramble.