When Sean Grayson murdered Sonya Massey in July, his bodycam was off. His partner’s was on.
Without that footage, many of us wouldn’t know the details of Massey’s story. But bodycam law isn’t a foolproof solution for preventing or protecting us from police violence either.
For one, cops like Grayson turn their bodycams off if they feel the consequences of breaking the law are worth not having recorded evidence of their actions.
Police also kill with bodycams on and then hide the evidence. For instance, a review in June 2022 found that footage of police killings was made public only 42% of the time.
Even when footage is available, forensic experts can still have different interpretations of what’s happening. And while officers live to explain videos filmed from their perspective, murdered victims can’t.
Police also don’t have bodycams on everywhere. In Illinois, cameras can be off in patrol cars, prisons, and courthouses. That’s when they are supposed to be on duty.
But what about “suspects” who are sexually assaulted in patrol cars? Domestic violence in officers’ homes? Off-duty shootings at traffic intersections?
Police will always circumvent reform to maintain violence.
When surveillance technologies haven’t prevented, much less ended violence committed by civilians, the same is true for police, who wield more power. Violence can’t just be videotaped. Its root causes must be addressed. And for police violence, that root cause is often the police system itself.