[busted]

This article is kind of absurd in its assumption, I think it's irresponsible. By saying that you thought police would modify their behavior in response to being filmed, and especially (but not only) by citing a bunch of studies where CRIMINALS changed their behavior in response to being filmed, you are implying that the officers would change their behavior because THEY KNOW THEIR BEHAVIOR IS WRONG and they were doing it anyway. You're essentially saying you are surprised more officers are not actively criminals.

The actual problem is more likely that in the vast majority of incidents officers DO NOT KNOW what they're doing is wrong, that for instance they're acting with bias or unreasonably against someone of color in a way they wouldn't act against a white person. The ACTUAL purpose of the body cameras is to create a record that allows ACCOUNTABILITY for officers ("I felt threatened" with no evidence is no longer enough to justify a shooting). Only with that accountability can we start to PROVE that officers are acting unfairly whether they consciously intend to or not, and then fix the problem (with "training" as the article says but with no detail may as well have been saying nothing).

[hvindin]

I think the article does, to some extent, address this when it says that the situations that we would most hope for modification in police behaviour are also likely to be the situations where the officer is under significant stress and has defaulted to their most primal response. So while I take your point that police don't think they are doing anything wrong when they misbehave, I think it is more correct to say that police aren't considering moderating their behaviour when they are in those particular situations.

[dade_]

I think the bias of this article against the cameras is obvious. I never thought the purpose of body cams were to improve police behaviour by some psychological effect (though a great benefit if it does), but to provide a record of what actually happened. They are also about protecting officers when they use force that is justified, or other situations where the need to defend their actions.