- Position1 of 2›
- Police cameras are beneficial
- Argument1 of 4›
Police cameras would deter police from acting irrationally
In the wake of the George Floyd murder, police cameras can play a significant part in deterring law enforcement officials from acting in excess of their powers.
The argument
A randomised control trial was conducted comprising of 400 LVMPD police officers, where half of the officers were made to wear body cameras, and the other half, the control group, were not. A year into the trial, it was found that police officers with cameras found a reduction in complaints against them by 30%, whereas police officers without cameras only saw a reduction of 5%. More significantly, police officers with cameras reduced use of force by 37% as opposed to their counterparts who saw an increase in their use of force by 4%. This suggests that the use of body cameras can reduce irrational use of force by police significantly.
Premises
Counter-arguments
Despite the introductions of body cameras, police brutality and the irrational use of force has not served as a deterrent. George Floyd was in police custody when he was murdered. The Minneapolis Police Department confirmed that the body cameras were on at the time of the murder. It was not the bodycam, but the footage of bystanders that revealed how George Floyd died. This suggests that the cameras themselves are not the silver bullet, it depends on how they are used by the police. The current rules on the release of the footage are varied, and over the years a lot of footage has not released by departments despite requests. Research on the use of force has been mixed. Although some studies suggest that the use of force decreases in the absence of a camera, other studies suggest that there is no significant difference in the use of force exhibited by police whether or not they are wearing cameras. This suggests that police cameras alone have very limited impact on the irrational behaviours capable of being exhibited by police, such as the use of excessive force as seen in George Floyd's case.
Rejecting the premises
[Rejecting P1] A single trial in one department establishes what happened among those 400 officers, not what body cameras do generally. [Rejecting P2] The percentages are reported without absolute numbers or any measure of significance, and the control group's 4% rise in use of force is as consistent with ordinary year-to-year variation as with an effect of going uncameraed. [Rejecting P3] The counter-argument notes that the wider research is mixed, with some studies finding no significant difference, and that cameras change nothing where footage is withheld: the officers involved in George Floyd's death were wearing activated cameras, and it was bystander video that established what happened. Any deterrent effect therefore depends on the rules governing recording and release, which the premise does not address.