Police Body Cameras

What are body cameras?

• “Wearable video cameras that police officers can wear alongside their badge, clipped to their uniforms or worn as a headset.” (Coudert, Butin and Le Metayer 750).

Why are Body Cameras being used?

Benefits of Body Cameras

Benefits of Body Cameras

• The power to expose officer misconduct and free those citizens who have been falsely characterized by the police ("Considering Police Body Cameras").

Concerns With Body Cameras

Concerns with body cameras

• Ability to shut the camera off to a certain encounter ("Considering Police Body Cameras.").
• Officers are allowed to view the footage first

Manipulation of Content

Manipulation of content

• In the court, attorneys can choose to show rough cuts or pieces of video. “Attorneys do not present films and videos as finished works, but rather as a component in a narrative that must be situated in a specific historic event and given legal context” (Brucato 466).

alterd footage

Issues regarding Privacy and Storage

costs

Costs of body cameras

• End of 2014: Obama proposed investing $263 million on body cameras
• For Baltimore City the cameras will cost $12 million dollars

Potential Future with Body Cameras

Potential Future with Body Cameras

Normailzation of body cameras

Survillance comes to a new level

thank you