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Bellanira Puentes
Professor Michael Mahoney
Writing 39C
31 October 2014
Police Supervision
Digital surveillance cameras have been the answer when looking for recorded evidence
of a crime scene for decades. With the rapid growth of technology, there have been more
modern ways of finding recorded evidence such as smart phones to catch footage on video and
other handheld cameras. However, these resources are not always available. For instance,
when Darren Wilson, a police officer, shot a man named Michael Brown. In this crime, Michael
Brown was unarmed when he was shot and killed. This event has provoked the protests and
riots going on in Ferguson Missouri. Was Officer Darren Wilson justified for what he did? The
people of Ferguson do not believe so and neither do many people of America. The issue is that
there are two different sides of the story and there is no way of knowing which side is correct.
There have been witnesses reporting on what they believe they saw and they are all different
than what the officer says himself.
Ferguson is largely populated by African Americans, roughly about 67 percent. On the
contrary, the Ferguson police department is largely dominated by Caucasians. Only three
officers are African Americans out of a total of fifty-three police officers. These police
demographics creates a problem when dealing with the shooting of Brown. Race is brought into

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the subject and made to seem to pose an issue. The department needs a better way of
controlling the police officers and the citizens. The social problem here is how far the Police
department should go into supervising a police officer. This can be either microphones or small
cameras located on police officers all the time while on duty. Without this technology available
in the ast, the people of Ferguson are the ones harmed by this problem because without
knowing the truth, there is no way of seeking out a punishment for the officer. Or instead of a
punishment it could mean leaving Wilson alone if he did nothing wrong. Because of the lack of
this information there have been protests and riots on the streets of this city. A legal issue
would be whether or not the Officer should get punished, and to what extent if he did. He was
not in the position to do what he did. He had no justification in his doing and no other
irrelevant issue is necessary to the case. This is what many protestors have been thinking
about with the issue of Michael Brown. An institution to blame for this problem would be the
Ferguson Police Department. The first step would be to take responsibility for what happened
and after to figure out the consequences. Since the Police Department cant do that without
any factual evidence, the people of this town have taken action by protesting. They have
created a statement that the country has taken note of. They are taking a determined stance
that is still going on today. All they want is justice for what is right. No one can be one hundred
percent sure of what happened during the shooting and this is why other precautions have to
be taken to ensure something like this is not repeated.
As mentioned in the previous paragraph, there have been conversations about body
cameras that police officers should use the entire time while working. The shooting of Michael
Brown has triggered the use of this technology so that all departments should start taking it

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seriously. The recent emergence of body-worn cameras has already had an impact on
policing, and this impact will only increase as more agencies adopt this technology, said Chuck
Wexler, executive director of the Police Executive Research Forum, a law enforcement think
tank that authored the report. (USA Today). Body cameras have already been in action but
they are still looking at enforcing it on all officers. This would solve a lot of problems in the
future. This would solve the social issue as well. The public would be able to see the video and
make their own judgement. There would be less complaints to the police department and there
would be a sense of more safety to a community. This also means that if any officers were
wrong-doing any situations then they would also be careful about what could come out on tape
and ruin their careers. The town of Ferguson is largely populated by African Americans and they
are known to be targeted by the police. It is rare to find someone in that area that can actually
trust the police. It is a problem because police are supposed to help the community feel safer,
not have the people be in fear. For at least a decade, there have been complaints about racial
tensions between police and black communities in the St. Louis County area. Communities,
some residents say, can have less-experienced, poorly-equipped police departments and highly
uneven levels of protection. (The Washington Post). These body cameras wouldnt fix all
problems but it is one step closer to feeling safer.
In contrast, there is an issue making all officers carry around a body camera as a part of
their job. Some departments would undoubtedly be opposed to this so it would be something
to keep an eye on to make sure that it is being enforced. Even some officers might be opposed
to this new idea because it could possibly cause a change to their daily schedule in their job. No

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matter how much work this would be to get it started, in the long run, it would make a huge
impact on society.
In order to comprehend how much of a difference this would make we have to
understand the theory of the Panopticon. The Panopticon is the idea of having eyes in the
center and surrounding it would be a circle of many levels of transparent walls. This setting
provides everyone to be able to see each other cellmates. Usually this idea would be used for
prisons. The main purpose behind this idea is that everyone would be watching each other and
themselves. Benthams model of the Panopticon would work the same way on the field of a
cop. Hence the major effect of the Panopticon: to induce in the inmate a state of conscious
and permanent visibility that assures the automatic functioning of power. (Foucault, 201).
With police officers wearing this digital surveillance camera, the people would be on the
lookout of not doing anything uncalled for that could get on video. Less crimes would be
committed and less misunderstandings. The issue still going on with Michael Brown has been
thought of an issue involving race when in reality it could have been a misunderstanding.
The police department is to blame for this problem as of now and the people are the
ones voting for this. With their approval of enforcing these cameras or voice monitors then this
could solve other issues in the future. It would do anything to solve what happened with Brown
in the past weeks. Although many have heard of this idea of cameras, others have not. The
government already has many cameras to surveillance the streets so that people can always be
watched. Even though the government is always watching people on camera, something like
this does not get caught on any recording device. It can also be argued that it is taking away

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some sort of privacy that people have. There has to be a choice made between privacy and
safety.
Police Officers like Darren Wilson should have more protection against pedestrians as
well as the other way around. Civilians should also feel protected for their rights and should
always feel secure of the information they are receiving from a law enforcement official.
Surveillance cameras will help them feel protected. The question would be how to get
everything started with this new idea of surveillance of each other with the Panopticon.

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Works Cited
Doctorow, Cory. "Why CCTV Has Failed to Deter Criminals." The Guardian. N.p., n.d. Web
-This site is talking about surveillance in general. There are different sorts of technology
that can be used to prevent criminals and that can capture footage for evidence.
"Even before Michael Brown's Slaying in Ferguson, Racial Questions Hung over Police
Washington Post. The Washington Post, n.d. Web. 29 Oct. 2014.
-Racial questions had already been brought up before the shooting in Ferguson. There is
a substantial level of whites dominating over African Americans. Race is an important topic in
my essay because it is what the residents of Ferguson are saying is the issue.
Foucault, Michel, and Alan Sheridan. Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison. New York:
Vintage, A Division of Random House, 1979. Print.
-Foucault summarizes the idea of the Panopticon as first mentioned by the social
theorist Jeremy Bentham. The Panopticon serves as a self-surveillance mechanism involving a
smaller amount of officials watching over prisoners or normal citizens. This source was very
useful to me because self-surveillance is relevant in my topic of finding a way of improving
police supervision.
Johnson, Kevin. "Police Body Cameras Offer Benefits, Require Training." USA Today. Gannett, 12
Sept. 2014. Web. 31 Oct. 2014.
-This supports my issue of how body cameras would be useful for any police encounters.
It also states that it would be difficult to bring all departments to start using them.
Keen, Judy. "Video Surveillance Used More by Small Towns." USATODAY.COM. N.p., n.d. Web.
28 Oct. 2014
-This is a small articles that says that smaller towns have less money and therefore have
more surveillance cameras. The more cameras there is they feel that the less police officers
they should have. It shows how useful cameras can be. Together they would be better.