Citizen Encounters Is Necessary but Not Enough
In the wake of the unrest sparked by the police killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and other such incidents around the country, some commentators (for example, here and here) have proposed equipping police officers with wearable cameras to record encounters with citizens. A number of important issues would need to be resolved in order to implement this proposal but, on the whole, it makes sense.Nonetheless, even under the best of circumstances, recording police-citizen encounters is no panacea. These encounters are often inherently dangerous. Any systematic effort to reduce violent conflicts between police and citizens should also aim to reduce the total number of occasions when police confront citizens.
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