Just "Requiring" Body Cameras is Not Seeing the Whole Picture

Many, including President Obama, have called for police to wear body cameras in the wake of Darren Wilson's killing of Michael Brown.  Others are skeptical, saying we need look no further than the death of Eric Garner to show that not even clear footage of a cop killing an unarmed man is enough to get an indictment in our system.  The criticisms as the relate to the Eric Garner situation are legitimate, and show why body cameras alone are not the solution.  Eric Garner's death shows we need other solutions in tandem with body cameras, like creating single term limits for prosecutors and eliminating qualified immunity in excessive force cases.   But body cameras are an important part of fixing this problem in the future and preventing prosecutors from hiding behind conflicting witness statements (which exist in most cases against civilians, which they have no problem prosecuting) as an excuse for not pressing charges.  But not just any body camera policy will do.  As has been proven by policies regarding recording police interrogations and cop car dashboard cameras, if the policies do not have strong enforcement mechanisms they will be meaningless.