Camera Obscura

Juries remain unconvinced. Police behavior has not changed. And they’re expensive. Huh? Oh, I’m talking about those police body cameras that were intended to increase sensitivity and reduce instances of excess use of force by cops that use them. And while we probably need more time, for cops and people to get used to them and begin to understand their yet-unrealized value, the impact-to-date of these body cams on improving police behavior has been disappointing.

“[Jurors] watching [police body cam] images playing on projection screens in courtrooms, have not come away with simple answers. In some trials, a single piece of body-camera footage has been used to illustrate competing viewpoints: In [a] Milwaukee case, slowed-down, frame-by-frame video was used to show that the suspect had no weapon when he was shot a second time. The same video, played at regular speed, revealed a scene that was swift, confusing and chaotic, a boost to the defense.

“Some jurors in these cases have said that, videos aside, they had been swayed most of all by officers’ assertions that they feared for their lives. And in some cases, the videos themselves do not fully show operative moments, leaving jurors to fill in the blanks…

“Some people had presumed that more videos would hand juries clear-cut answers to accusations of police misconduct… The videos ‘have changed things,’ said David A. Harris, a law professor at the University of Pittsburgh who studies police behavior, police regulation and racial profiling. ‘But it was a little naïve to think they’d solve the problem, or get us all the way home on the question of guilt or innocence.’” New York Times, June 25th.

“By 2015, 95 percent of large police departments reported they were using body cameras or had committed to doing so in the near future, according to a national survey. The federal government has given police departments more than $40 million to invest in body cameras, and state and local authorities have spent many millions more…

“After a series of high-profile police shootings, police departments across the nation turned to body cameras, hoping they would curb abuses. But a rigorous study released Friday [10/20] shows that they have almost no effect on officer behavior.

“The 18-month study of more than 2,000 police officers in Washington [D.C.] found that officers equipped with cameras used force and prompted civilian complaints at about the same rate as those who did not have them…

“Chief Peter Newsham of the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington said the results were surprising. ‘I thought it would have a difference on police and civilian behavior,’ he said. ‘Particularly for officers — and this is the exception — who might be more inclined to misbehave.’

“But Chief Newsham said the cameras had a number of benefits that could not be easily measured: more accurate investigations, better training and at least one case in which the footage exonerated an officer accused of shooting an unarmed suspect (who was indeed armed). Most important, he said, they bolstered the trust of the community… ‘You have to be legitimate and trusted,’ he said. ‘You can’t underestimate the value these cameras bring to that.’

“Behavior modification has never been the sole argument for body cameras. Their most important function may be to create an independent record of police shootings and other encounters with the public…

“Though body cameras are now in greater use, their purpose is often left undefined, raising thorny questions about surveillance, privacy and other issues. ‘Police departments have been rushing to body cameras without sufficiently deciding what the goal is,’ said Seth Stoughton, a former officer and a law professor at the University of South Carolina, who has studied the devices extensively. ‘When no one is sure what it is supposed to do, no one knows if it is working.’…

“Monica Hopkins-Maxwell, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of the District of Columbia, said cameras were ‘not a panacea’ and that only more emphasis on initiatives like community policing, data collection and better training would help build good will.

‘I don’t think body cameras in any way, shape or form by themselves increase trust,’ she said. ‘The way you increase trust is through relationships and how communities are treated by police officers.’” New York Times, October 20^th.

So do we save money and decommission this technology? Should money be deployed in more productive areas like community relations and training? Or are body cams part of a greater learning experience that we have yet to harness and understand, something that just might save lives, redesign training programs and ultimately build that under-performing level of trust among too many communities who still view cops as enemy intruders?

I’m Peter Dekom, and in this over-connected world of instant responses and easy solutions, sometimes it just might make sense to invoke patience and seek better uses of the information we are generating by the ton.