Mandatory Body Cameras

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Pages: 5

In the recent years, more law enforcement agencies have been outfitting their officers with body cameras. However, the increase in officer worn body cameras have some citizens stating it is an invasion of their privacy. While others are more concerned about the initial cost of equipping every officer with his or her own body camera and the continual cost of data storage. On the other hand, the use of officer worn body cameras will improve the law enforcement imagine; allowing the public to see a different side of law enforcement officers, provide valuable evidence, minimize the amount of false complaints against officers while holding officers accountable for their inappropriate conduct, and increase the safety of officers and the public.
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Per Maury “Policymakers have two primary mechanisms to regulate body camera use in situations where privacy is more at stake: (1) mandating when a camera must be turned on and off, and (2) imposing notice and consent requirements” (2016). Some state legislation has adopted a non-continuous running camera policy. This is to ensure a smaller amount of privacy exposure, allow officers to continue to maintain their openness with trusted sources and witnesses, as well as minimize the amount of space needed to store data. However, if an agency adopts the non-continuous policy, they must ensure officers are clear as to when they are required to activate their body worn cameras. For example, one should expect an officer to stop recording if they enter a location in which there is a reasonable expectation of privacy such as a locker room or in a hospital. Law enforcement agencies can outline discipline procedures for failing to comply with polices. Policymakers must also ensure they create a policy specifically related to storage security and who is granted access to the police body camera recordings. stating who may access or acquire police body camera recordings. Depending on the size of the department, some agencies have opted to securely store their body worn camera footage on an encrypted cloud. Some body camera makers offer secure storage services, companies such as VieVu and Taser (a.k.a. Axon). Larger law enforcement agencies such as the Oakland Police Department can record hundreds of hours of video a week. This can make managing the footage more taxing in comparison to a smaller agency such as Rialto Police Department (approx. 54 officers). Still some agencies have opted to download their own body camera footage to their agencies local database or CD and keep in under lock and key within