The Perils of Police Cameras

Main St. Agenda by from Bloomberg, August 24, 2014

There’s an understandable tendency, after a crisis, to look for a quick fix: a new law, a new leader, a new technology that can make sure it never happens again. After prolonged unrest in Ferguson, Missouri, where a police officer killed an unarmed teenager, one such fix has been proposed again and again: Make cops wear body-mounted cameras.

The idea is that cameras should help clarify confrontations between police and citizens and reverse the growing imbalance of power between them. But without proper safeguards, cameras could worsen both problems — and create some new ones of their own.

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