An increased amount of police officers are wearing body cameras (BWCs) after the events in Ferguson, Missouri. photo from http://mediad.publicbroadcasting.net
Following the events in Ferguson, Missouri, an increased amount of police officers have been authorized to wear body cameras.
African American Michael Brown was shot and killed by Ferguson police officer Darren Wilson in early Aug. 2014. Wilson was not indicted by the grand Jury, which sparked civil unrest, protests, and many revolts against policemen before and after Wilson resigned from the police force late November the same year.
While the exact events of what took place before Brown was shot were still being decided, the Ferguson police force began wearing body cameras in an effort to film any other reactions they encountered.
According to BBC.com, Safety Vision and Digital Alley are two video surveillance companies that donated the video equipment to the officers. Safety Vision’s goal is to expose what actually occurs during police investigations.
On Oct. 30, 2014, about 50 cameras were distributed. According to the Ferguson police chief, the video cameras were received well by the officers, who were eager to use them.
An article from Dec. 2014 on the Southern California Public Radio Web site states that residents of Ferguson support the idea of policemen wearing video cameras while on duty.
This Web site also notes that Obama is supporting a program to distribute the body worn video cameras (BWCs) to 50,000 police officers in an effort to lessen arising tensions in communities, such as the events of Ferguson.
Congress will need to approve Obama’s plan of distributing $263 million in the funding of BWCs over the course of three years.
Many are doubting the supposed effectiveness of BWCs. Some posed questions include whether or not these cameras will make policemen act more accountably while on duty, or how BWCs will impact community and police interactions overall.
Others don’t doubt their effectiveness at all.
Senior Seth Rosenkrans advocates the use of BWCs. “Police should definitely wear body cameras as they clear up the confusion that comes with such cases as that in Ferguson, to make sure that everyone is treated fairly by law enforcement” Rosenkrans said in response to this new technological development in the criminal justice system.