CJ330-Week 2 Writing assignment Body Police Cameras
What is your opinion about body cameras and their use for security officers and public police? Do you feel the use of social media to broadcast videos of arrest incidents have helped lead to a stronger criminal justice system or has resulted in more division among the public. Why?
Body Police Cameras
The police department and related agencies have consistently used body cameras to record law enforcement operations. The body cameras worn by the police have video, audio and recording systems to ensure that to capture events in the interest of virtual guidance and for future references. The recording and the use of cameras have attracted different opinions regarding the handling of law enforcement operations to achieve high effectiveness and efficiency levels.
Police Body Camera Opinion
The use of body cameras has a wide of advantages from the community’s perspective and the criminal justice system in the interest of finding justice, fairness, and equality on different civil and criminal matters that involve law enforcement operations (Ariel, 2016). In this case, the use of cameras enhances the civility of police and citizens’ interactions in law enforcement operations. The police need to act reasonably by way of exercising appropriate force and handling of suspects, and such issues have been in the public domain, and thus the operations need to be recorded to ensure that inappropriate activities are recorded. Consequently, body cameras ensure that transparency and legitimacy are upheld in police operations and the facts on the ground. The police cameras record actual operations and facts on the ground presented in courts in the interest of justice for the parties involved in any case. Moreover, police cameras’ use improves the general quality of policing operations in society to ensure that police act within the law and that the citizens are treated reasonably. Police enable the police departments and authorities to track the professionalism employed by their officers in the field while recording the citizens’ facts and behaviors related to violation of the law, thus enabling the courts to objectively handle the different cases. Therefore, body cameras are vital aspects of law enforcement and the criminal justice system to ensure that the general law enforcement and handling of law violation cases are carried out reasonably for the concerned parties.
On the other hand, the police cameras can be criticized for a wide range of unfavorable reasons to the citizens and the police. In this regard, police cameras invade the privacy of suspects and citizens, thus violating their rights to privacy (Ariel, 2016). For instance, citizens can be exposed, thus affecting their social lives. Additionally, police body cameras are expensive and unreliable to police departments. The police departments cannot provide the cameras to every police officer due to their expensive nature, and not all police can use them favorably.
Impact on using social media to broadcast video
The posting of videos on social media platforms has been effectively enabled the criminal justice system to be strong. In this case, the recording has made the criminal justice system make decisions that are in line with public opinion from the various social media platforms (Braga et al., 2017). This approach ensures that the criminal justice system remains strong and aligned with the peoples. Additionally, posting the video on social media creates transparency and legitimacy to ensure that the citizens participate in the criminal justice system through public opinion to ensure public support of the criminal justice system.
Conclusion
Police body cameras have a wide range of advantages in ensuring that law enforcement and criminal justice agencies work to attain the highest levels of justice, fairness and equality through the recording of law enforcement operations. On the other, hand police body cameras have disadvantages in invading privacy; they are unreliable. Additionally, the use of police recorded in social medial ensures that criminal justice becomes stronger through the public’s involvement in decision-making.
References
Ariel, B. (2016). Police body cameras in large police departments. The Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology (1973-), 729-768.
Braga, A. A., Coldren, J. R., Sousa, W. H., Rodriguez, D., & Alper, O. (2017). The benefits of body-worn cameras: New findings from a randomized controlled trial at the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department. Arlington, VA: CNA Analysis & Solutions.
