Body Cameras Used By LAPD And The ACLU Reaction

Even though the ACLU is constantly expressing its concerns about the use of body cameras by the law enforcement officers from Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), those cameras have already turned into an invaluable asset for the entire department and are being actively used most of the time.

Not too long ago two police officers were deployed on a scene, when witnesses reported that they saw a woman armed with some type of knife. It is not entirely clear what happened when the police arrived on the spot, but one thing is certain – they shot the woman. She was taken to a hospital, but her condition and her injuries were critical, so she did not make it. It seems that both law enforcement officers discharged their weapons into the woman. The police chief also stated that both officers were wearing body cameras when the shooting took place and that both of the cameras were already taken to the lab, their content was downloaded and is part of an active investigation. In addition, the law enforcement officers collected all footage from the security cameras that were near the shooting and will examine it as well. It is peculiar that the LAPD division that both of the officers are from is one of the first divisions that received body cams. That footage will be analyzed by specialists and will be used as evidence in this case.

Body cameras are slowly and yet inevitably becoming a part of the law enforcement. Despite the fact that the use of body cameras is seemingly accumulating praises and public recognition, should you dig a little bit deeper, you are going to be surprised with results. Some representatives of the law enforcement authorities as well as various public organizations and civil rights groups, such as the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) are actually expressing their concerns and are questioning whether it is correct to use those cameras in the first place.

The ACLU claims that the body cameras program needs to be defunded. According to this group, the use of body cameras automatically violates the basic human rights for privacy. This is due to the fact that those cameras are going to be recording everything around the law enforcement officer all the time. Hence, certain people and events that may not want to be on cameras will have their rights violated. This basically means that the goals of those cameras to deliver better transparency as well as public trust will automatically be violated as well.

There is plenty of controversy around using body cameras. First of all, the official statistical data clearly indicates that since the law enforcement officers in San Diego started to use those cameras, the number of complaints against them dropped nearly 90%. Furthermore, the use of those body cameras allowed to reduce the use of force by the law enforcement officers as well.

On the other hand, there were cases when the law enforcement officers were involved in shootings and were wearing their body cameras. Yet, the footage from those cameras was not released to the public, since the official stance implies that once the footage becomes evidence in an active investigation, it cannot be shared with the public under any circumstances.

Well, such an approach also raised plenty of questions. For example, will the release of the footage actually mess with the investigation? Furthermore, will the footage be used in order to investigate fellow officers or for criminal investigations only? Will the police officers be allowed to turn their cameras off? What will be the length of video that will be permitted to keep in storage and how long the video will be kept for? Some of those questions are fairly reasonable and demand answers.

The mayor of Los Angeles, Eric Garcetti, has the same position on the body cameras as the LAPD. However, he confirmed that even though the footage from body cameras will not be released to the public in case it will be a part of an active police investigation, in extraordinary cases that very footage will be used in order to restore order on the streets, protecting from eruption of violence. Moreover, the mayor stated that there were particular cases when the police body cameras allowed to record important evidence that was later used in order to benefit the case in general. Of course, the mayor also stated that the videos are not going to be released in rape cases and domestic violence cases. Additionally, the mayor said that people are going to be afraid to report any crimes at all if all those videos will be released to the media and the internet. People will stop calling the police in order to report a crime, since they will be too afraid that a video will appear on YouTube later with them in the leading roles.

On the other hand, the ACLU representatives as well as their attorneys stated that the mayor is misrepresenting their intentions. They claim that they never had the intention to release all the videos to the public – only those videos that demonstrate unlawful actions of the law enforcement officers and nothing else.

Needless to say, ever since the Michael Brown shooting, the relationship between the law enforcement authorities and the public was slowly deteriorating. Hence, president Obama allocated $75 million dollars for the body cam program in order to make sure that the law enforcement officers are acting in a transparent as well as genuinely lawful way that will appeal to the people around the nation.

Los Angeles already purchased 700 body cameras for its law enforcement officers, using a part of those $75 million. However, the city also intends to acquire 7000 more cameras and will even use a part of its own budget for the purchase.

Still, the controversy is very real when it comes to police body cameras and there is no definitive answer to whether the cameras are harmful or beneficial for the public.