Body cams were never a solution to anything. I remember multiple police murders recorded on body cams were the officer was acquitted by the jury. Police murder is basically legal in US*. Recording it doesn’t change anything. As for police brutality in general they simply learned to shout “stop resisting” when beating people up. Without basic accountability the recording are useless.
*It’s enough if police officer thinks he is in danger to make killing legal. Pretty much if he’s scared he can shoot. Body cams can’t prove he wasn’t scared.
"Long before body cameras were introduced to the public and found themselves in mainstream conversations about police reform, they were first peddled to police departments by tech companies and major corporations.
With body cameras, law enforcement agencies could expand their surveillance capacity, mitigate police brutality lawsuits, create “highly controllable evidence” against the largely poor, largely Black citizens of whom police often seek to capture footage, and quell social unrest by creating “comprehensive digital archives” of attendees at protests for social change"
“It was the 2014 police killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, that would forever change the public conversation around police accountability and allow body cameras to take center stage. Almost immediately, body cameras were no longer being pitched behind closed doors to police departments, but were rather presented to the public as an invaluable tool for police “reform” and increased “transparency.””
There’s a reason some cops turn off their body cams before certain encounters, it’s because some places do hold them accountable. At least there’s a public record
There’s always a small chance police officer will be held accountable but in vast majority of cases the system simply doesn’t work. Body cameras are part of that system. They are used to create evidence the police can control and use in their favor. In most cases they simply hide the recordings (https://www.propublica.org/article/how-police-undermined-promise-body-cameras?c_src=33685809.57194).
Body cams were never a solution to anything. I remember multiple police murders recorded on body cams were the officer was acquitted by the jury. Police murder is basically legal in US*. Recording it doesn’t change anything. As for police brutality in general they simply learned to shout “stop resisting” when beating people up. Without basic accountability the recording are useless.
*It’s enough if police officer thinks he is in danger to make killing legal. Pretty much if he’s scared he can shoot. Body cams can’t prove he wasn’t scared.
Body cams aren’t the solution, but they do help a lot. When cops have zero oversight, they commit way more atrocities, on average.
You should read this: https://prismreports.org/2024/07/16/complex-troubling-history-police-body-cameras/
"Long before body cameras were introduced to the public and found themselves in mainstream conversations about police reform, they were first peddled to police departments by tech companies and major corporations.
With body cameras, law enforcement agencies could expand their surveillance capacity, mitigate police brutality lawsuits, create “highly controllable evidence” against the largely poor, largely Black citizens of whom police often seek to capture footage, and quell social unrest by creating “comprehensive digital archives” of attendees at protests for social change"
“It was the 2014 police killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, that would forever change the public conversation around police accountability and allow body cameras to take center stage. Almost immediately, body cameras were no longer being pitched behind closed doors to police departments, but were rather presented to the public as an invaluable tool for police “reform” and increased “transparency.””
There’s a reason some cops turn off their body cams before certain encounters, it’s because some places do hold them accountable. At least there’s a public record
There’s always a small chance police officer will be held accountable but in vast majority of cases the system simply doesn’t work. Body cameras are part of that system. They are used to create evidence the police can control and use in their favor. In most cases they simply hide the recordings (https://www.propublica.org/article/how-police-undermined-promise-body-cameras?c_src=33685809.57194).