With tensions now running especially high recently between citizens and police around the nation, both MSU and the cities of Lansing and East Lansing have ordered body cameras for their police forces.
The price tag is high — MSU is paying $111,000 for 85 cameras, including charges for storage and other upgrades — and a start date is yet to be announced. But despite the cost and other uncertainties, this is the right decision by these departments, and one that, considering recent turmoil between citizens and police, seems like a no-brainer.
With the unrest created by the Michael Brown shooting in Ferguson, Missouri and Eric Garner’s death in New York City, among many other incidents, equipping police with body cameras is mutually beneficial for both people living in the area and the law enforcement patrolling it.
While East Lansing hasn’t experienced any cases of police brutality nearly to the extreme as those that have attracted national attention, there are certainly cases in which having a body camera on a police officer would solve disputes.
During the Cedar Village celebrations after MSU’s victories in the Sweet 16 and Elite Eight, police were accused of overreacting to what was relatively harmless behavior after a Spartan victory. Body cameras on the force would likely answer the question of whether those arrested deserved such a black mark on their record.
What’s especially encouraging, beyond the police departments’ agreement to wear the cameras, is seeing an active response from local police to the brutality-related issues that have put all of America’s law enforcement under a microscope during the past year or so.
When protesters marched to the city of East Lansing’s police headquarters in November, they presented a list of demands to be met by the force. While none of these were met by the original deadline, it is a step in the right direction to see one of the demands — putting body cameras on all police officers — finally addressed.
Body cameras are something that, as long as they’re affordable, should help any police force in ensuring they are doing their job correctly. There are simply too many disagreements and too many claims of police misconduct to continue to operate under the status quo.
Body cameras will force both police and citizens to think twice before doing something they shouldn’t, and more departments around the nation should follow in Lansing and East Lansing’s footsteps in equipping their officers with this expensive, but worthwhile, technology.
Minority representative Sergio Martinez-Beltran did not serve on this editorial because he was out of town at time of publication.
