The city of Chattanooga is currently considering body cams and some commissioners have worries about officer accountability with the ability to turn the cameras off. It is portrayed across the country that most officers hate the idea of body cameras, but there are some in the law enforcement community who would highly welcome them.
Some of us welcome the idea as it will also help with citizen accountability. In Tennessee just about everything is subject to the Open Records Act and daily releases of citizen actions observed in our schools and homes should be released. The SRO’s should be able to release the actions for all to see of some of these delinquents at work in our schools in full HD quality. Drunken disorders at many homes where people of all economic statuses demonstrate their “reality TV quality actions” would be an eye opener for many and nightly showings of these various activities in high quality audio and video would also be a welcome addition.
With future technology it will be nice to be able to use these body cameras for tag, facial recognition and data monitoring which will highly assist the law enforcement community with investigations. After all, electronic cameras do not profile, so if your tag is expired or if you have an active warrant one can be assured it is a random stop. The new cameras will be a great tool not only for officer accountability, but also for citizen accountability as well.
Furthermore, the cost of these same camera systems could be off-set by pay-per-view subscriptions for these viewings adding the additional transparency everyone seeks and savings for the taxpayers.
Time and time again forum writers, citizens of this community and across the country have expressed the need for additional transparency in law enforcement. If the community really wants transparency then let us have transparency for all.
Doug Wilson
Harrison