The Springfield Police Department is looking into rolling out a program to install 50 video cameras Downtown, along with four microphones that can pick up the sound of gunshots. This program also plans to install video cameras in police cruisers, both to scan license plates in search of stolen cars, and to record police officers on the job. Although the Springfield Police Supervisors Association and Local 364 of the International Brotherhood of Police Officers has been resistant to new technology, recording police officers on the job could do a lot to prevent police misconduct. From The Republican:
As for video cameras, critics over the years said failure to install video cameras in cruisers showed a lack of accountability. The cameras record officers interacting with drivers at traffic stops and making arrests, and supporters say the devices also can protect officers from false charges of brutality. The U.S. Department of Justice in 1999 urged that cameras be installed in cruisers here to improve the department’s credibility with blacks and Hispanics.
Credibility is something the department could use. But in this plan, cameras in police cruisers would come as part of a package of civilian surveillance all over the city, and at great monetary expense to taxpayers. Is police accountability worth the price tag?