In the past ten or so years it has become more and more common for police officers in the United States to not only have dash cams recording every incident, but in an increasing manner also body cams, so the video footage will show exactly what the police is seeing, hearing and saying.
There are many reasons why they are becoming more and more prevalent, but one of the reasons that many people, especially Americans, think is that this helps curtail abuse by the police, as police officers wearing these cameras will now be unable to lie in order to cover their abuse and criminal behavior.
Ironically, many police officers actually welcome this, and wear body cameras happily. This is because, once again quite ironically, the body cameras actually help the police officers themselves against false accusations, rather than catching the police officer himself committing a crime or abuse.
Example after example has surfaced where a police officer has been accused of abuse, racism, discrimination, or other kind of immoral or unlawful conduct, and the body cam footage has completely exonerated the officer, because it shows that the accusation was completely false and fabricated (and usually landed the accuser into trouble for defamation and abuse of the legal system).
In one example a black pastor accused a police officer of racial profiling and improper conduct, claiming that the officer had stopped him when he was driving, asked him if he had any drugs in the car, as well as where he's from and who owns the car, and disbelieved him when he said that he lived in that neighborhood and that it was his own car (he even claimed that the police said something along the lines "if that's true then I'm Bill Gates"). The body cam footage showed that all those accusations were completely fabricated. It was a routine traffic stop because he had turned without giving a signal, and the police officer said absolutely nothing even resembling any of those things. He didn't ask anything about any drugs, he didn't ask where he lived, "Bill Gates" (or any other such name) was never mentioned. Nothing. (In fact, the police officer was completely professional and polite during the entire traffic stop.)
There are many, many other similar examples.
There are many reasons why they are becoming more and more prevalent, but one of the reasons that many people, especially Americans, think is that this helps curtail abuse by the police, as police officers wearing these cameras will now be unable to lie in order to cover their abuse and criminal behavior.
Ironically, many police officers actually welcome this, and wear body cameras happily. This is because, once again quite ironically, the body cameras actually help the police officers themselves against false accusations, rather than catching the police officer himself committing a crime or abuse.
Example after example has surfaced where a police officer has been accused of abuse, racism, discrimination, or other kind of immoral or unlawful conduct, and the body cam footage has completely exonerated the officer, because it shows that the accusation was completely false and fabricated (and usually landed the accuser into trouble for defamation and abuse of the legal system).
In one example a black pastor accused a police officer of racial profiling and improper conduct, claiming that the officer had stopped him when he was driving, asked him if he had any drugs in the car, as well as where he's from and who owns the car, and disbelieved him when he said that he lived in that neighborhood and that it was his own car (he even claimed that the police said something along the lines "if that's true then I'm Bill Gates"). The body cam footage showed that all those accusations were completely fabricated. It was a routine traffic stop because he had turned without giving a signal, and the police officer said absolutely nothing even resembling any of those things. He didn't ask anything about any drugs, he didn't ask where he lived, "Bill Gates" (or any other such name) was never mentioned. Nothing. (In fact, the police officer was completely professional and polite during the entire traffic stop.)
There are many, many other similar examples.
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