|
Police hold a position of great power over citizens in any country. In all western industrialized nations there are thousands of cases of alleged or convicted police abuses each year, including thievery, collusion, brutality and murder.
I propose that we affix digital cameras onto all on-duty police officers.
This move would not only reduce or eliminate potential abuse of their public trust, but will also provide police with liability against false claims of abuse.
Can we afford it though?
Of course we can. We already provide them with cars, uniforms, guns and mountains of paperwork. Digital recording and storage costs would be minimal in comparison. Police already have been using dashboard cameras for years but this is by no means standard, nor does it cover all police activity.
If police were doing their jobs they should have no problem, with and be in support of, such measures as having their actions recorded.
Police may say that it isn't fair that they should be singled out for surveillance over any other public service job, say firemen or paramedics. While I'll agree that a case could be made for putting cameras on these other workers as well, in relation to the number of alleged abuse cases and considering the actual opportunity to abuse citizens, no other public service job can compare to police, in terms of ability to harm the citizenry. Police, unlike any other job, have a license to kill. Sure, there are avenues citizens may use to take action against police, but a citizen rarely has the resources of a police force. Because police are in such a position of public trust, and because of the litany of alleged and convicted police abuses, cameras on police would go a long way to making society more peaceful and would help repair the poor image that many police services now endure, to the public.
And let's all keep in mind that in many jurisdictions, police are themselves employing cameras in public areas to surveil the public, already. If they can justify surveiling the public for their own good, surely they can see the benefits of having cameras put on themselves, for their own good. Police that would attempt to argue against having their actions recorded would only do so to preserve their ability to allow and/or cover-up abuse.
_________________ 
|
