Senior government and politics major
At the news that President Obama has requested $263 million in federal funding to assist in the purchase of police body cameras and training, I am elated because I’ve already expressed the benefits of body cameras in a previous column. I could stand to have more faith, but I wasn’t expecting anything outside of small local efforts for at least another year, much less a solid federal movement.
The funds set aside in the executive proposal would be used to match up to 50 percent of the cost of 50,000 body cameras, estimated to cost $75 million. The funding will also go toward training in the responsible use of paramilitary equipment, much of which has trickled to the police through the Homeland Security preparedness program. Obama also intends for the funds to address a “simmering distrust” between police and minority communities through outreach.
But training and outreach are intangible solutions. What is tangible is 30 frames per second, eight hours per day. My position hasn’t changed in these three months: If a police officer is armed with a lethal weapon, he or she should be armed with a camera. All the training and outreach in the world are just talk and dithering in comparison.
The shooting of 12-year-old Tamir Rice in Cleveland could not have been prevented with outreach. Nor could it have been directly prevented with a body camera. But without the footage recovered from a park camera, the public would have been reliant on the testimony of officer Timothy Loehmann, who shot Rice who was wielding a BB gun within two seconds of parking his police car at the scene.
Without the camera footage, we would never know what Loehmann personally saw on the scene or if his assessment of the situation was as irresponsible as it now appears.
Cameras are outreach. Cameras are trust. Cameras will discourage racist actions, explain complicated but justified civilian deaths and be decisive evidence in unjustified civilian deaths.
A common argument is that no other profession faces this level of scrutiny. To this, I don’t have to say much: No other profession encounters direct contact with the public in this scope while armed with a lethal weapon. People who work retail are under more surveillance and they’re only armed with bar code scanners.
Even more aptly, retail cameras are present to deter robbery or shoplifting. If it’s worth watching a store 24/7 because a crime might happen, I think it might be worth it to watch a police officer while on the clock because they are literally out looking for it.
As I said, we’re way ahead of my skeptic schedule. But if Obama wants to see an end to this crackling tension between the police and the public, this can’t be the end of the funding push. Incentives might need to be created, highway funds might need to be used as leverage and public records laws will need to be adapted or technologically supported, but if we want to live in a civil society, it needs to happen.
Emma Atlas is a senior government and politics major. She can be reached at eatlasdbk@gmail.com.
