Group Project Component #1
The bill that my group was assigned was HB 474 which relates to officers wearing body cameras. The bill states that certain police officers will be required to wear cameras that are capable of recording video and audio. The certain officers that would be required to wear them will be the ones who are engaged in traffic stops and respond to calls for assistance for the public.
I would say that this bill would be a high salience issue. It is a high salience issue because of all the problems involving cops and innocent people. With all of the news about cops beating or even killing innocent people has gotten out of hand. Many of these situations have been on the news all over the country, so people are aware of what cops have been doing to these innocent people. If they are not brought up by the news you can also see them on social media where they are viewed and shared by millions of people. So with all of these incidents happening on the streets you would wonder if there was an altercation before the incident or what is the real story behind it all because one can only see so much from a video. For example if in a video all we see is a cop shooting a person we quickly assume that the victim is the person getting shot, but what if the person had brought out a weapon to hurt or provoke the officer. We did not see that in the video so others won’t believe the officer. If officers were to wear body cameras that have the capability to record video and audio then you would be able to see the officer’s view, not just the victim’s view. Not in all occasions does the victim have to be the bystander, it can also be the officer. So for everyones safety it is best for officers to wear body cameras. That way we can see what actually is going on, and who is actually the victim.
