Law enforcement practices around the country have come under scrutiny as more and more police shootings make the news, and a new poll shows a huge majority of people support a requirement that cops wear body cameras and other new steps.
According to a new online poll of roughly 880 American adults conducted by the Leadership Concurrence Education Fund and Anzalone Liszt Grove Research, 88 percent of those polled support body cameras on police officers.
The same poll also found that two-thirds, 67 percent, feel that body cameras on police would work to reduce police brutality.
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The highest support for body cameras came from African-Americans, with 73 percent saying they “strongly supported” them, compared with 62 percent of people overall who said the same.
But simply putting body cameras on police to wear won’t solve all the problems. Three-quarters of those asked say it is “very” or “extremely” important to establish policies regarding the use of the cameras and the footage they produce, such as who sees the footage, who edits the footage and when and how the footage gets released to the public.
For example, 80 percent want the footage to be made publicly available in any case where police misconduct is reported, and that criminal defendants should also be able to see it.
“Our nation is at an unprecedented crossroads of social justice issues. We’re now presented with a myriad of initiatives at state, local and federal levels attempting to address decades of entrenched policy failures,” Sakira Cook, policy counsel at The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, told reporters Monday.
Seven out of ten oppose letting police officers view footage before they write their incident reports, while 72 percent want clear limits on how facial recognition technology can be used with these cameras.
Last month, the Department of Justice announced it was awarding numerous grants worth more than $23.3 million to 73 law enforcement agencies across 32 states to expanded the use of body-worn cameras and explore their impact.
The program imposes a body camera requirement and also trains officers in their use. The Bureau of Justice Assistance’s Smart Policy Program will support local departments in Miami, Milwaukee and Phoenix “as they examine the impact of body-worn cameras on citizen complaints, internal investigations, privacy, community relationships and cost effectiveness,” while also helping the departments partner with a research institution to learn more about the benefits of using body-worn cameras.
“If federal dollars are going to body-cameras, there needs to be federal polices that line up with how they are used,” Cook said, saying federal legislation like the End Racial Profiling Act is a must.
In May, the Leadership Conference released a list of principles to police body-worn cameras. The group was joined by a broad coalition of other organizations voicing support for the principles outlined including the ACLU, the NAACP and the National Urban league.
Those principles have yet to be adopted by the federal government and the End Racial Profiling Act, legislation introduced last April by Rep. John Conyers and Sen. Ben Cardin that would prohibit the use of profiling on the basis of race, ethnicity, national origin or religion by law enforcement agencies.
