Question

1. Discuss the pros and cons of requiring police officers to wear body cameras.

2. Why is it difficult to measure police performance? Are declining crime rates indicative of effective policing? Why or why not?

3. Why is it important to study the history of policing in America?

4. Compare and contrast the recent three eras of policing.

Answer 1

Pros of requiring police officers to wear body cameras are-

1)It helps to increase safety level of both police and public - When the person knows that they are under camera , they behave in a better way. Use of body cameras will motivate better behaviour by police officers as well as by public resulting in decrease in brutality , unnecessary attacks on police officers.

2) It helps to increase police responsibility and save them from untrue allegations- Usage of body cameras will give the evidence of every happening in audio and visual form.It will provide us with a reliable proof and will help to save officers from the false allegations put on them by public.

3) It can be used as a good equipment for training- With the help of body cameras recordings, the existing officers can get guidance about how to deal with different situations and new officers can also be given training with the help of recordings.

Cons of requiring police officers to wear body cameras are -

1) It decreases the security level of police and has negative effect on their mental and physical health - As police interacts with variety of people , so they may face violent response from the people who take drugs, consume alcohol or are mentally upset. They may respond in a negative manner when they will notice that their activities are recorded by the police.

2)It disturbs the privacy of the public, reveals the sufferers and eye witness of crime and effect relationship of public and police - Usage of body cameras by police officers will reveal the personal medical situations of public, sufferers of crime like domestic violence or rape etc. Some things are to be kept secret between the public and police officer only. But the usage of camera will ruin these privacy of public.

3)Body cameras are too costly - These body cameras are too expensive and if they are once purchased they add on to many other costs also like providing training to use them, employment of more staff to control the recordings and manage them effeciently and spend on their maintenance.