Huge Public Support For Police Wearing Body Cameras

The recent incidents in Ferguson(Missouri) and Baltimore (Maryland) have brought this country's racial problems back to the forefront -- especially in our criminal justice system and with police. It is just a fact that in too many cities across this nation police do not treat people equally. Minorities are targeted by racial profiling and subjected to different (and many times more violent) treatment than Whites are subjected to.

Unfortunately, the races don't see this problem the same way -- and because of that, it's going to be a difficult problem to solve. As the chart above shows, only about 37% of Whites think Blacks are more likely to be killed by police than Whites, while 53% believe the races are treated equally. Blacks have a much different opinion -- with 79% saying Blacks are more likely to be killed, and only 16% saying the races are treated equally.

Those numbers are from a new CBS News / New York Times Poll -- done between April 30th and May 3rd of a random national sample of 1,027 adults, with a 3 point margin of error. But while the survey shows the races do not agree that this is a serious problem, a huge majority of the public agrees about one possible solution to that problem -- requiring police to wear body cameras. The survey shows 92% of the public supports that idea.

And that's not the only survey showing most Americans want police to wear body cameras while on duty. A recent Rasmussen Poll (done on April 29th and 30th of 1,000 likely voters, with a 3 point margin of error) shows that 70% of the public supports this, while only 19% oppose it.

I agree. Body cameras wouldn't completely solve the problem, but it would be a good start. Leadership of police departments must also be addressed, since abusive rank-and-file officers only do what they think they can get away with -- and too often the leadership has not instituted policies that would deal with those abusive officers.