![]() ![]() 21 Jeter maintained from the beginning that the officers had used excessive force while arresting him, and that he had not acted violently. Marcus Jeter was arrested by New Jersey police officers during the summer of 2012 and subsequently charged with “eluding police, resisting arrest and aggravated assault on an officer.” 20 Parts of this encounter were caught on tape by the dashboard camera in the officers’ cruiser. Section D then discusses recommendations for other legal reforms necessary to ensure that body cameras do in fact increase transparency and improve relations between police and the communities they are supposed to serve. Section C catalogs several downsides of the cameras, all of which should be critically explored prior to their widespread adoption. Section B lays out the purported benefits of body cameras, particularly their potential for increasing public trust and police accountability. ![]() To that end, this Chapter explores the contours of the body-camera debate. 19 Their adoption should also not be used as an excuse to stifle continued conversation about the root causes of police violence and fractured community relations, as body cameras alone will never be the hoped-for cure-all. 17 So although video footage has the potential to move citizens as it did in the Garner case, 18 proper implementation of this new policing tool requires careful consideration of current policy proposals, rather than the rapid, reactionary adoptions currently taking place nationwide. Their proliferation over the next decade will inevitably change the nature of policing in unexpected ways, quite possibly to the detriment of the citizens the cameras are intended to protect. 16 Moreover, body cameras are a powerful - and indiscriminate - technology. But as the outcome of Garner’s case demonstrates, even when high-quality, graphic footage is available, officers may still not be indicted, let alone convicted. This widespread galvanization over body cameras 15 exemplifies the human tendency, in times of tragedy, to latch on to the most readily available solution to a complex problem. 11 This initiative gained “overwhelming support from every stakeholder in the controversy - the public, the White House, federal legislators, police officials, police unions.” 12 Indeed, on Decemtwo days prior to the grand jury decision in Garner’s case - President Obama announced $263 million in federal funding to allow law enforcement agencies “to purchase body-worn cameras and improve training.” 13 The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) also repeatedly voiced its support for widespread adoption of this new technology, heralding body cameras as “a win-win” as long as civilian privacy remained properly protected. 10 The hope was that video recordings of police-civilian interactions would deter officer misconduct and eliminate the ambiguity present in cases like Michael Brown’s, making it easier to punish officers’ use of excessive force. ![]() Prior to the grand jury’s decision, both protestors and politicians were calling for police departments across the country to outfit their officers with body cameras. The outrage over Officer Pantaleo’s nonindictment presents an interesting challenge for reformers. 8 A little over a week later, the failure of a Staten Island grand jury to indict NYPD Officer Daniel Pantaleo for his fatal use of a chokehold on Eric Garner, yet another unarmed black man, further catalyzed the movement - particularly because this deadly encounter was captured on film by nearby onlookers. This widespread initiative - said to evoke the civil rights movement 7 - began largely in response to a Missouri grand jury’s decision not to indict police officer Darren Wilson for any crime related to his fatal shooting of Michael Brown, a black teenager who was unarmed when shot. 2 These displays of solidarity, inspired by earlier protests in Ferguson, Missouri, 3 spread across the country: from Oakland 4 to Chicago 5 to New York City, 6 citizens took to the streets to demand reform from their government. 1 They carried with them signs inscribed with the mantras of that movement -phrases like “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot” and “Black Lives Matter” - and they joined together to call for justice, for police accountability, and for the nation to address the structural forces that permit white police officers to kill a black person at least every eighty-four hours. One evening in early December 2014, thousands of people gathered on the historic Boston Common, not to view the annual Christmas-tree lighting, but to add their voices to a growing movement. ![]()
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