Cameras and Criminal Justice

Almost every American has a cellular phone device, an iPod, tablet, or other electronic device that provides them with a ready camera to record events on the spot. Post 9/11 also added innumerous cameras and surveillance on every street corner. For quite some time now there have been “dashboard cams” in most police cars, now there are many officers wearing body cameras. There is virtually nowhere that is impervious to being caught on camera. The presence of cameras everywhere does definitely have pros and cons as far as effective, safe law enforcement goes. It seems that almost daily we see on the news another police interaction “caught on camera”. For the sensationalization factor, the scenes we see splashed across the evening new are those in which a few unprofessional-appearing law enforcement officials are caught behaving in a less than ideal manner.

There are a plethora of citizen videos showing incidents involving the police, often only capturing an in progress situation. Almost never is the instigating incident recorded. There are other videos captured on dash and body cams that leave us in pure awe. Some videos show officers being aggressively attacked by motorist or would be captures, while some show officers undeniably using excessive force. This is where the pros and cons enter, for me.

I come from a family of blue bloods. My Dad was a cop, both of my sisters (one a Sergeant…one a retired officer) cops. My brother was a recruit, turned Maryland Court Commissioner. My brother in law a DC Police Commander, we boast a host of other relatives who vary from PG County Corporals to Corrections Officers. My point of view is probably biased toward law enforcers. I look at the cameras in two ways: to protect officers and law abiding citizens by recording things that may be used to convict those who have broken the law; the opposing side is similar to that I spoke of above: it is at times a pause for officers. I personally think cameras could...