Todd Lyon and Jose Klein's article "Police Accountability and Police Union Buy-in: Thinking Through the Labor Relations Implications of Body Cams." NPELRA's Newsletter on June 2, 2015.
In the wake of massive public outcry over recent police-involved killings of unarmed individuals of color in several states across the country, proponents of greater police accountability have pointed to police-worn body cameras ("body cams") as a potential way to regain public trust in officer use of force. Proponents of body cams include none other than President Obama, who has proposed a "Body Worn Camera Partnership Program" in which the federal government would make available $75 million dollars for local police departments to purchase 50,000 body cams. The hope and expectation is that through the use of these recording devices, incidents of police misuse of force and citizen complaints of police misconduct will drop. While there have been no scientifically valid empirical studies on the issue to date, anecdotal evidence suggests great promise. For example, trial studies in Rialto, California and Mesa, Arizona have shown a correlation between deployment of body cameras and significant reductions in police use of force.
In the article, Todd and Jose discuss a number of policy concerns that come to bear on a wide range of issues surrounding mandated use of body cams. Those issues include questions on the applicability of public records laws to the millions of hours of footage generated by these cameras, officer access to body cam footage prior to report writing, and the privacy rights of citizens who come into contact with filming police, to name a few.
They conclude by stating that in order to take advantage of body cam technology as an avenue for reestablishing police accountability and trust between citizens and law enforcement, it will be essential to involve police unions in the development of the policies that will come to bear on the issue.
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