Police body cameras would restore public trust, proponents said. They would infuse transparency into the murky, complicated human interactions in which officers daily find themselves, they promised. They would be a hard defense against police abuse, they swore.
So many promises. So little transparency to see it through. In the past two years, proponents of body cameras – often police departments themselves – made a lot of promises about the expensive, potentially invasive technology. But as last week’s denial of a Freedom of Information request by the city attorney in Bettendorf, Iowa proves, the promise of body cameras hinges on Iowa lawmakers’ commitment to presumed transparency. Continue…