Monday, April 25, 2016

More on Police Body Cameras

          Here's a great article titled "The Problem with Police Body Cameras" written by Janet Vertesi. Vertesi agrees that body cameras alone are certainly not capable of fool-proofing the Criminal Justice System. She believes that they are basically a quick fix, and "like other technologies before them, their 'evidence' will get swept up into the continuing battles of one side versus another. And whose interpretation wins out will always say more about who is in power than who is in the right." While civil violence could be contained with the help of body cameras, the real battle is not on the streets, but in the courts and policies within the CJS.

          There are numerous unresolved issues surrounding police body cameras including civilian privacy for those recorded, policies regarding when cameras should be recording, public access to recordings, and the costs of storing the footage. Furthermore, would the public be comfortable with the interaction of body cameras with higher-tech systems like facial recognition, infrared imaging, etc.? These are all questions that need answering before body cameras can become widely used throughout the nation without any sort of controversial issues arising.
       
          La Vigne, Nancy. (2015, August). Evaluating the Impact of Police Body Cameras. Urban Institute. Retrieved from: http://www.urban.org/debates/evaluating-impact-police-body-cameras

          Vertesi, Janet. (2015, May 04). The Problem With Police Body Cameras. Times Magazine. Retrieved from: http://time.com/3843157/the-problem-with-police-body-cameras/

          

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