Police Accountability and Police Union Buy-in: Thinking Through the Labor Relations Implications of Body Cams.

Todd Lyon’s article “Police Accountability and Police Union Buy-in: Thinking Through the Labor Relations Implications of Body Cams.” was featured in the NPELRA’s Newsletter on June 2, 2015.

In the article, Todd discusses a number of policy concerns that come to bear on a wide range of issues surrounding mandated use of body cams. Those issues include questions on the applicability of public records laws to the millions of hours of footage generated by these cameras, officer access to body cam footage prior to report writing, and the privacy rights of citizens who come into contact with filming police, to name a few.

They conclude by stating that in order to take advantage of body cam technology as an avenue for reestablishing police accountability and trust between citizens and law enforcement, it will be essential to involve police unions in the development of the policies that will come to bear on the issue.