Police-Worn Body Cameras Case Study

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Ultimately, the COPS Office’s biggest priority in operations of police-worn body cameras seems to be officer welfare. By giving officers some discretion over their cameras in the field and protection from critical supervisors, the COPS Office aims to keep police officers safe. Additionally, the COPS Office avoids making any hard stance on their views by indicating types of policies that need to be implemented (e.g. policy on footage retention time needed) without actually stating how they should be implemented (e.g. no statement on what that retention time should be). Note: while COPS has officially submitted all of these recommendations to local police departments, the departments have no obligation to involve the recommendations into their policy-making.

Stakeholder #2: American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) The ACLU is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization dedicated to preserving the liberties granted to Americans via the United States Constitution. Because police brutality violates these liberties and the misuse of police-worn body cameras could potentially cause further violations, the ACLU has worked to developed their own recommendations regarding body cameras. The ACLU recommendations highlight their concerns over the protection and
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However, recordings should be released when there is, “a strong public interest in that video that outweighs privacy concerns.” (cite: “A Model Act”) This public interest typically occurs in the case of police brutality. While police departments cite “investigative privilege” as the reasoning for not releasing footage, the ACLU argues that such reasoning is invalid. Because the rationale behind “investigative privilege” refers to tipping off suspects, the privilege simply is not applicable when an officer is the suspect who recorded the footage. (cite: “A Model