For police accountability to be a tangible goal, earnest transparency is an absolute necessity. To invest faith in any institution to hold itself accountable through undisclosed methods is simply naïve. Transparency has not exactly been a point of praise for Iowan government. According to the Center for Public Integrity and Global Integrity, Iowa barely passes on the subject, receiving a D-plus rating for the year of 2015.
Police accountability, on a national level, has been the subject of intense scrutiny, with many Americans finding that justice is often lost to the victims of police shootings and police homicides. Police officers are rarely charged with anything when involved with on-duty shootings and often find themselves on paid leave when there is enough public uproar.
The statistics seem to support this sentiment. The Wall Street Journal reported “new research by a Bowling Green State University criminologist shows that 41 officers in the United States were charged with either murder or manslaughter in connection with on-duty shootings over a seven-year period ending in 2011. Over that same period, the FBI reported 2,718 justified homicides by law enforcement, an incomplete count, according to experts.”
The digital age has brought this issue into the greater public eye, with the problem no longer a little known social-affliction only predominantly seen by the communities of color disproportionately affected by the problem. Cell-phone video cameras have been crucial tools of forcing dialogue and attention around police misconduct and brutality. It is hard to refute the claims of a victim when a video proving those claims has gone viral.
Thus, the notion of “body cameras” started to gain popularity. The type of camera in question is a video camera strapped to the chest of an officer that, ideally, would record each and every encounter the officer has. hey would be serve. According to the Des Moines Register, 300 patrol officers working in the Des Moines area will be wearing cameras by December.
Ames seems to be one step ahead. According to the Ames Tribune, “part of an initiative to create a safer campus, the Iowa State University Police Department has received 45 body cameras to outfit every officer on the force.”
But the campus police are using this tool under a draft policy, which they have refused to release to the public. This gives the public a vague understanding as to whether or not they have any agency to access these videos.
This is indicative of the inherent privilege law enforcement is granted above the general public. The police should not have primary control over documentation meant to provide an objective perspective, as it is only effective if all parties involved have equal access. This simply defeats the purpose of a body camera to allow law enforcement the ability to withhold this footage from the public.
The tool was invented and implemented to protect the community, providing the objectivity of captured video to either confirm or refute the claims of police. Secrecy behind how this objectivity will be shared with the public does nothing other than to compromise community trust in law enforcement.
Iowa can set a noble precedent concerning the tool. An open dialogue and open access to the footage would bring community and law enforcement together rather than perpetuating a history of distrust and deception already in practice.
The Daily Iowan Editorial Board believes the solution is simple: release the policy and invite a community dialogue on the matter. Iowa needs to work on transparency issues, and the police could always improve their relationship with the community. This would work toward both gains.