Use of Body Cameras - Essay Example

The use of body cameras is beneficial to the security department in decreasing discrepancies and liabilities that result due to a lack of substantial evidence following an investigation. Body cameras can record everything that the police officer can see and hear as an advantage to view in an unbiased situation. This is advantageous for the police department in keeping track of the interaction with the community ensuring all-important information that can give links to the enhancement of security situations is taken into consideration. When using a body camera, all the recordings are stored and accessed through a secure server where senior leaders can access and view all patrols. This would also be important as it helps the management of the security department to determine the patrol level of the officers to ascertain the meeting of the required patrol standards (Gonzalez-Sanchez & Puig, 2011).

Police officers cannot alter the device but only turn it on or off. Chief Tony Farrar, Chief of the Rialto Police Department in California, conducted a 12-month experiment resulting in a 50 percent drop in the number of complaints and the use of force. Statistics could be attributed to the utilization of the body camera as a device that could equally act to relay the use of excessive force by the police. Likewise, the University of Georgia police department described the use of the body camera as an “increase positive resolution” for their patrols.