Should Police Officers Wear Body Cameras?

Words: 615
Pages: 3

The debate surrounding the use of body cameras by police officers has sparked a nonstop argument from all over. While body cameras may offer certain benefits to police, they are a representation of accountability and transparency that can gain the trust of people. Being kept informed of the consequences gives people options on what side they could be on. Shedding light on the topic, police officers shouldn’t wear body cameras because of the financial burden, technical malfunction, and the body camera failure to hold the police accountable. The financial burden associated with officers with body cameras has not been talked about enough. Body cameras are too expensive and unreliable for many police departments. Police departments that do have body cameras have to budget a lot considering they not only have …show more content…
So are millions of dollars being wasted instead of being used to create a long-term solution? The ongoing costs of maintaining body camera programs can create long-term financial liabilities that can be irreversible. Technical malfunction is bound to happen with anything related to tech. Despite advancements in technology, body cameras are not immune to glitches, hardware failures, or software errors that could result in the footage being corrupted or lost. Technical malfunctions or system errors may result in unintended recording of private conversations or activities, infringing upon the privacy of both officers and civilians. Civilian privacy can even be violated due to a technology error and can endanger them by recording private conversations or activities, furthermore on many occasions they have almost led to deadly circumstances that could have ended up in someone's death. According to “The New York Times” stated “In Oct 2018 at Staten Island, New York, an officer's body camera burst into flames while the officer was wearing the