Even after the press conferences, autopsy report and disturbing video footage, there are still several unanswered questions surrounding Michael Brown’s death on Aug. 9. Now many are calling for the implementation of police body cameras to prevent similar cases in the future.
Kurt Vorndran, a member of the District of Columbia Office of Police Complaints Board, discussed the idea with HuffPost Live on Wednesday. After seeing a reduction in "negative" police interactions in Rialto, Calif., when the town implemented body cameras, Vorndran speculated that a camera could have changed the outcome of Brown’s initial encounter with the police in Ferguson.
“First of all, [there is] the deterrent effect: that these tragic incidents -- whatever happened -- may not have happened because you had both changes of behavior of the police officers and changes of behavior of citizens [when police officers were wearing cameras],” he said, referring the successful case study in Rialto.
He also explained that video footage would be particularly helpful in the aftermath of such conflicts.
“If there is a situation, as occurred in Ferguson, you do have a video tape, which, while it will be imperfect, adds to the evidence that can be used in determining what happened,” he told HuffPost Live host Alyona Minkovski.
Steve Soboroff, president of the Los Angeles Police Commission, suggested that cameras could also address the mistrust that has developed between police and citizens.
“What happened in Ferguson, what happened in New York, what happens in any one of these cases that is tragic because life is lost, is opening this Pandora’s Box to what these feelings are, of distrust,” he said. “And that’s what I think we all have to take some responsibility for.”
Watch the full HuffPost Live conversation here.
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