In an exclusive interview with Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer, he told us that starting tomorrow there will be 50 uniformed officers sporting new body cameras. With another 15 cameras coming in February bringing the total to 65 for the first quarter. Dyer said the plan is to have all 400+ uniformed officer’s wearing a camera by the end of 2015.

With all the corruption in law enforcement today, is it going to be safe to permit the use of body cameras without policy or guidelines in place? With facial recognition technology, these cameras may become an intrusion of our anonymity. This may lead to more aggressive tactics when it comes to stopping people without probable cause.

Often times video evidence plays no role in the indictment of a police officer. In the case of Eric Garner, the only person arrested was the cameraman. Also, the footage that sparked national outrage did nothing to lead to the indictment of the officers. New Orléans police officer Lisa Lewis had her camera turned off when she killed Armand Bennet. Justin Ranum turned off his body camera before his partner Matthew Bush shoved a flashlight in a young women’s mouth.  Jeremy Dear has a history of a camera malfunctions. Once while breaking up a fight, he repeatedly punched a 22 year old man with a closed fist. During a traffic stop he yanked a man out of his car, and kicked him in the groin. The third time he shot and killed 19 year old Mary Hawkes.

Activist groups have started opposing body cameras. Taking the issue up with their City Council. Hamid Khan told PressTV, Los Angeles that the body cameras would just add to an existing arsenal of equipment police use to spy on the public. Khan says the LAPD already attempted recording equipment in patrol cars and officers proved they couldn’t be trusted.

Not every cop is a corrupt one,  but it’s not hard to see how larger police departments with large budgets can overstep their authority, or cover up their misbehavior. Will FPD abuse this new equipment, or will they use it responsibly in a fashion that protects us, and them? Only time will tell.  Let us know how you feel about law enforcement using body cameras in the comments.