As a cop who is very pro body cameras, I can share a few thoughts. My first thing I did as a sergeant was have my entire squad given cameras (400 officer department, only about 100 cameras purchased so far). I wore one for 3 years, but when I was promoted they took it away and gave it to a line level guy. There camera protected me against false accusations, made court way easier, and generally made"my job" much simpler. As much as I loved that, I didn't like wearing it, and here's why:
Police are morbid, dark humored people. The amount of fuckery that goes on behind closed doors is astounding, and the things we say in private about your dead/injured loved ones, or people we've sent to jail for years would probably make you very uncomfortable. That's how we survive. 90% of cops are like this. With the camera, there is no closed door, and there is no "in private." The shift this brings in culture is palpable. We once took a bunch of broken glass from a scene and took a new cops car with the spare key, left the glass on the ground, and convinced him that his police car had been stolen. None of that happens any more.
With cameras, you legitimately see more guys going out drinking after shift, or huddling inside a station taking to each other rather than being on the road. Dark as it may sound, we have to have that out, and the cameras take it from us because nobody wants to get fired for making an insensitive joke.
'via Blog this'