SPECIAL REPORT Body Cams and Unforeseen Consequences SUMMARY


Police body cameras may actually hurt your community. The real, enduring solution is achievable, but we must be honest about what it is.


MORE INFORMATION www.ethicsinstitute.com


BODY CAMS AND UNFORESEEN CONSEQUENCES


THEY MAY MASK THE PROBLEM; NOT ADDRESS THE ROOT CAUSE. By Neal Trautman


citizen conflicts is for officers to build trust during the endless personal interactions they have with blacks. Body cameras have great value, but may be- come a ‘quick fix,’ that allows chiefs and sheriffs to escape accountability for not having developed cul- tures in which personnel want to patrol with kindness and garner trust, even in hostile communities. Body cameras may have the unintended consequence of the conflict never being resolved.


T 46 LAW and ORDER I March 2016 he only true answer to the police/black


The report issued by the “President’s Task Force on 21 Century Policing” can be the blueprint for what policing needs for improving relationships with black communities. Task force members did an exceptional job, but the ques- tion of whether agencies will implement the suggestions is doubtful.


Since the best predictor of future performance is pertinent past behavior, the outcomes to previous national commis- sions on police offer an insight for the short term. President Johnson’s Commission on Law Enforcement made hun- dreds of recommendations in 1967, but many chiefs and sheriffs did not practice them. The 1972 Knapp Commission on Police Corruption, Christopher Commission in 1991, and Mollen Commission in 1992 met a similar fate from admin- istrators other than Los Angeles and New York City.


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