The long-running debate over whether or not to equip police officers with body cameras has raised many eyebrows. Many believe it will help everyone's cause. Not necessarily, like many other controversial topics, this debate also has its drawbacks. Let's go back to 2014, when an unarmed African-American teenager, Michael Brown, was killed by a police officer. After the tragic death of Michael Brown, many people have spoken out against police officers who believe they are above the law. Additionally, as there has been a spike in shootings of unarmed civilians and police brutality, countless people are calling for all police departments to provide body cameras to officers. Will body cameras be the answer to current problems? Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get Original Essay Since 2014, President Barack Obama proposed a $75 million funding bill to fund local and state police departments to provide body cameras to their officers, research showed a dramatic low of excessive use of police force and complaints against officers. Studies have shown that police officers and individuals behave better when they are aware that their actions are being recorded. “Accumulating evidence further suggests that individuals aware of being observed often engage in submissive or commonly accepted behaviors, reinforcing the entity.” Additionally, part of the perceived benefits of issuing police body cameras are increased transparency, accountability for those who abuse power, improved policing, and interactions with citizens. Body cameras can also be a great benefit to police as they can protect police from false accusations of misconduct. Additionally, police body cameras can provide real-time incident evidence that can clear police officers or suspects of false accusations. For example, “In Texas, a police officer was fired and charged with murder after body-worn camera video surfaced refuting his underlying claim in the killing of an unarmed young man.” In this case, video footage saved an officer from conviction. Another case: “In Baltimore, MD, a police officer was suspended and two partners were placed on leave after they were caught on body-worn cameras planting counterfeit evidence at the scene of a crime.” On the other hand, body cameras can also trap bad and corrupt cops. Furthermore, “In San Diego, California, the use of body cameras provided critical evidence to exonerate police officers wrongly accused of wrongdoing: the number of reports of extremely unfortunate behavior deemed false increased by 2.4% and the number of officers identified on less serious charges were excused. with leadership, kindness, technique and administration increased by 6.5%. “Many argue that police officers should not be required to wear body cameras because they are too expensive and unreliable. Additionally, providing police offices with body cameras is incredibly expensive since departments not only have to budget for the cameras themselves, but also for equipment, information preparation, warehouses, additional personnel to manage video information and support costs. For example, to prepare “the Bakersfield police department, for a total of 200 officers, would cost approximately 440,000. dollars in the first year and $240,000 over the years.