In any civil society, the State is given a monopoly on the use of force, with the understanding that disputes between citizens are best settled through the rule of law.

But this monopoly on force is an enormous responsibility, and those charged with upholding said responsibility, ie. the Police, need to be held to extremely high standards accordingly.

Recent events have shown that many police departments in America are not living up to these high standards. George Floyd was killed by an officer while three fellow officers stood by doing nothing, and the Minneapolis Police Department only arrested the officer after the video of Floyd's death had become viral.

It is clear that something in the culture or structure of the Police has rendered them incapable of holding themselves accountable. Thus, we the citizens need to be given the information necessary to hold them accountable ourselves.

Usage of bodycams has proliferated throughout US police departments, but said footage is useless if it never sees the light of day. The vast majority of states make it extremely difficult to access bodycam footage, and give Police Departments lots of discretion in deciding what footage to release. In Los Angeles, for instance, Police leaders have even made the blanket statement that bodycam footage is exempt from public disclosure laws, and is only released if the LAPD wishes to release it.

We need a Federal Law that changes these practices. The Police are servants of the Public, and the records of their interaction with said Public should be accessible to all member of said Public. Bodycam footage should be made electronically accessible, for free, through the internet. The Police serve the Public, and we need the information necessary to ensure they are serving us well.

Enacting this legislation would only solve one part of an immensely complex issue, but I believe any American would agree that civil servants should be accountable to those they serve. Transparency only serves to improve our democracy.

A Note On Privacy:

In order to retain the privacy of individual citizens, the video should be released with all faces automatically blurred and no audio. However, an individual in the video (or their next of kin should they be deceased or otherwise incapable) should be able to request the full version of the video and have their request be automatically approved.

A Note On Implementation Cost:

Some may say this places a large burden on Police Departments, but the departments are already taking and archiving hours of bodycam footage. Making this footage available on the internet is extremely feasible with today's technology, and would cost less than the millions Police Departments already spend on advanced weaponry.

A Note On Usefulness:

Some may wonder what good it does to release hours upon hours of mostly uneventful footage, won't the Public and watchdog groups be unable to sift through the data? 

Once again, modern technology makes this approach feasible. Machine learning can be trained to identify footage where the Police have had a confrontation with the Public. Watchdog groups will subsequently be able to focus their efforts.

In addition, all footage should be properly timestamped. If a member of the Public believes they or a relative have been mistreated, they can search through the footage at the relevant time to get more information.

The goal isn't to capture the 99% mundane footage, its to make sure that the footage exists in the 1% where its so crucial to have it.

A Note On Lack of Footage

In order for this policy to have an effect, officers must also be required to actually use their bodycams while on duty. Bodycams being in working order and turned on should be considered part of the essential duty of a Police Officer. Any officer who fails to uphold his essential duties should be terminated.

A Note On Police Relations

I believe that increased transparency will only improve relations between the Police and the Public in the long run. If Police know that their actions will be scrutinized, they're more likely to live up to their responsibilities. If the Police do a better job of living up to their responsibilities, and the Public is able to easily verify that, the public will have less reason to fear and distrust the Police.