To Avoid More Fergusons, Make Cops Wear Cameras

I’ve
got a column up at Time.com that
spells out the best policy to minimize incidents like the death of
Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri at the hands of the police:

Each of these incidents has an unmistakable racial dimension—all
of the victims were black and all or most of arresting officers
were white–that threatens the always tense relationships between
law enforcement and African Americans. As important, the
circumstances of each death are hotly contested, with the police
telling one story and witnesses (if any) offering up very different
narratives.

Brown’s death in particular is raising major ongoing
protestsprecisely because, contrary to police accounts, witnesses
claim that he had his hands up in the air in surrender
when he was shot. The result is less trust in police, a situation
that raises tensions across the board.

While there is no simple fix to race relations in any part of
American life, there is an obvious way to reduce
violent law enforcement confrontations while also building trust in
cops: Police should be required to use wearable cameras and record
their interactions with citizens. These cameras—various models are
already on the market—are small and unobtrusive and include
safeguards against subsequent manipulation of any recordings.

Read the whole piece
here.

As Reason’s Ronald Bailey pointed out last year, “Watched
cops are polite cops.” One study he cites found that wearing
cameras by Rialto, California cops reduced use of force incidents
by 60 percent and complaints against police by 88 percent.

And as Reason’s Paul Detrick learned by talking with former
Seattle cop Steve Ward, “Everybody behaves better when they’re on
video.” Ward is the head of Viewvu, a company that makes wearable
cameras for law enforcement. Watch that interview now: