Should All Police Officers Wear Body Cameras?

Mayor Bill de Blasio is speeding up a plan to outfit nearly all New York Police Department patrol officers with body cameras, following the lead of many small and medium-sized cities. The hope is that body cameras will increase accountability and transparency at a time when tension is growing between communities and local police departments, especially in the wake of recent events in Ferguson, Mo., and Staten Island.

Do you agree with Mr. de Blasio that body cameras will “fundamentally change” the way the police and the community interact? Should all police officers wear body cameras?

In “Police Body Cameras Could Come to New York City Soon,” Marc Santora and Nikita Stewart write:

Mayor Bill de Blasio on Wednesday announced that the New York Police Department was accelerating its efforts to eventually outfit nearly every patrol officer on the force with body cameras.

With communities across the nation wrestling with questions about police conduct and struggling to bolster public trust in law enforcement after the unrest in Ferguson, Mo., Mr. de Blasio said the cameras would provide a sense of accountability and transparency.

Officers in several precincts could be wearing the cameras as soon as Friday.

Mr. de Blasio, speaking at a news conference at the police academy in Queens, said the cameras would “fundamentally change” the way the police and community interact.

“When something happens, to have a video record of it, from the police officer’s perspective,is going to help in many, many ways,” he said. “And God forbid, when something goes wrong, we are going to have a clearer sense of what happened.”

He unveiled the cameras, which he said were light, easy to use and would “in no way impede” the work of the police.