One week after it was reported that Ferguson, Missouri police officer Darren Wilson would not be indicted for killing of Michael Brown, President Obama announced that the federal government would spend $75 million on police body cameras. Wilson was not wearing a body camera when he shot Brown at least six times, and some have reasonably suggested that if Wilson had been wearing a body camera during his interaction with Brown that it would have been easier to determine if Brown’s killing was a justified or unjustified use of force.
Police in Missouri were in the news again after recently released dash camera footage revealed that an officer warned colleagues who were arresting a suspect that the camera was live before it was suddenly turned off. Both Brown’s killing in August and the footage of the April 2014 arrest highlight not only the fact that body cameras would provide investigators looking into allegations of police misconduct with valuable evidence, but also that there needs to be clear policies in place that relate to police and the cameras they use.
One lawmaker in Missouri proposed legislation that would make law enforcement camera footage policy clearer, but it should worry anyone concerned with law enforcement accountability and transparency.
Read more at http://www.cato.org/blog/missouri-bill-would-keep-most-police-camera-footage-public-view
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