Police boosters insist that police violence and corruption are the result of “a few bad apples.” As the saying goes, “a few bad apples spoil the bushel.” If you think there are just a few bad cops on the force, then you should want to get rid of them before they wreck the whole institution. Bodycams could empirically identify the bad apples, right?
Well, hypothetically. But what if police leadership don’t want to get rid of the bad apples? What if the reason that dashcams, tasers, and pepper spray failed is that police leadership are fine with them? If that were the case, then bodycams would turn into just another expensive prop for an off-Broadway accountability theater.
That’s the key. You can do a lot with technology, but many problems are not solvable with technology alone.
It does not matter how safe or reliable bodycams work if there are no repercussions for not wearing or disabling them. But since american cops are not even held accountable if they straight up murder people, nobody should be surprised that bodycams “don’t work” in a system like this.