On August 9th, 2014, police officer Darren Wilson shot and killed 18 year old Micheal Brown in Ferguson, Missouri. Shortly after that happened, President at the time Barack Obama requested $263,000,000 for police body cameras and police training. 

 

Since then, over $70,000,000 from different police funding programs have gone towards different law enforcements in 47 different states. Only Maine, Montana, and North Dakota are not funded yet. So far, 36 states are required to wear body cameras.

 

Some people say that police cameras are a waste of money and take too much funding from the community to waste on cameras. Another con is the safety of the police officers. Since officers have started wearing body cameras, assault on officers have gone up 14% caused by some people not liking being filmed, most being under the influence or mentaly ill. 

 

Some people will also say that they will uphold the citizenship of citizens knowing that they are on camera and will be nicer to the officers. Some other people say they can save lives and are worth the money because there has already been a couple police officers charged with murder and sentanced to jail from footage shown on the cameras. One more positive part of body cameras is that they will lead to less paperwork and more people to plead guilty in court from footage shown on cameras.

 

I personally think that officers should be required to wear body cameras because I think they can save police officers' lives and lead to more people being nice to them knowing they are on camera. They may be a little costly, but I think they are worth it.




Do you think they should be required to wear body cameras?

 

Do you think they can save lives?

 

Do You think they will put the officers lifes at risk?

 

https://nij.ojp.gov/topics/articles/body-worn-cameras-what-evidence-tells-us

 

https://www.procon.org/headlines/police-body-cameras-top-3-pros-and-cons/

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  • Good topic choice and your summary is pretty good! Be sure to reply more frequently next time--three comments per page on average.

  • I think that police should be required to wear body cameras. If the police do wear the cameras then it is safer for the officer and the citizen the officer is working with. When everything is being filmed it stops the citizen or officer from lying about how the encounter happened. 

  • I do not think that wearing body cameras is a waste of money. I think that all police officers should be required to wear body cameras. I think they could save lives, but mainly help prove if someone is guilty or not. There can be allegations against police officers and this can bring out the truth. 

  • Yes, I believe that police officers should be required to wear body cams. Wearing body cams would be beneficial for the officer and criminal because the footage could depict whether or not the arrest was unlawful or if the criminal resisted arrest. No, I don't believe that body cams will save lives. Also, I don't believe that body cams will put police officer's lives at risk.

  • I think that police should have to wear body cams so then they can show how the criminal wasn't cooperating with the officer and then it can show that the police is telling them what to do and they aren't doing what they are being told.

  • I think it would be a very smart idea to require police to wear body cameras, I think it would change the way people view cops tremendously and it would have a better impact on the way cops are talked about falsely. I do think that cameras could save their lives because if something were to happen elsewhere they would always know what would happen to those cops because of the cameras they are wearing. However, it could put the officers life at risk being that if someone realized that the cops were wearing the cameras they could take it as offensive or as a way of the cops trying to get at the suspect. 

  • I think police officers should wear body cameras. I think they can save lives because they can record everything that happens, and that can be used as evidence to put someone in jail. I don't think it will endanger police officers by wearing it. I actually think it would protect the officers because people know they are being recorded so they won't do anything illegal.

  • I think polce wearing body cameras would be a great idea because of all the false rumors of poilce being racist because media only records what they want you too see not what really happened. This could also go the other way around too saving people from jail time and getting things on their record preventing some jobs. It would also show how the person and the officer is behaving. So yes I do think they should be required to wear them.

  • I think it's a very good idea to have body cameras on so that we could understand what happened before the conflict.  I think the cameras could sort out situations.  I do not think that it will endanger the officer just because it is such a small thing for an officer to carry.

  • I 100% that body cameras should be required. It is found that in many situations where police have shot and killed someone, they did not have a body cam, and these situations happen too often. With body cameras, officers will be more held accountable, and that would minimize abuse of power. 

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