Metropolitan King County Councilmember Dave Upthegrove introduced legislation this month to require King County Sheriff officers to wear cameras, prompted by the shooting in Ferguson, Mo.
There are departments testing out the cameras across the state, a KING-5 article noted. Seattle Police Department (SPD) had planned a pilot video-recording program earlier this year but delayed it because of privacy issues, according to a GeekWire article. The potential invasion of privacy is one of the big issues, with police recording citizens. Another is requiring the cameras to be on all the time, as ACLU’s Doug Honiq noted in the KING-5 article.
Police officers everywhere should wear cameras: Cameras protect both the citizen and the officer. They would also eliminate a lot of the “he said, she said” of police reports. With SPD’s ongoing debacle with the Department of Justice’s use-of-force policies, these cameras would be able to prove whether officers are following the newly enforced protocol. This may ultimately even improve SPD’s standing with the public, especially if it can prove its actions were just.