There was another debate about police body cameras Friday. But this wasn’t one of those town hall style debates. It was at Towson University, part of a two-month, eight university tour by iDebate Rwanda in an effort to tell the story of how that country has evolved since the genocides 20 years ago.
And unlike recent televised debates with presidential candidates, no one raised questions about anyone’s credit card use, or accused someone of being “low energy.” This debate was more constructive.
The Rwandan team, represented by Ekisa Monique, Maya Musenga and Clemence Mboibozi, had to make the case that body cameras helped curtail police brutality.
Towson’s debate team, represented by Ben Goodman, Korey Johnson and Sierra Underdue, had to disprove their African counterparts case.
The Case For Body Cameras
The Rwandan debate team made many of the same arguments proponents in this country have made for the technology.
“If we don’t equip officers with cameras, we’ll have a controversial instance where the word rests on the officer and that isn’t always the truth,” said Musenga, arguing body cameras brought more accountability.
Her teammate, Mboibozi, later argued that cameras are a small but important step in police reform while acknowledging that even more changes are needed.
“It does not mean that just by using body cameras will be beyond focus and won’t have time to tackle other issues,” she said. “My question would be can’t you do both?”
Eskia Monique talked about investigators in the Michael Brown case not finding any evidence that Brown was surrendering to police officer Darren Wilson. Wilson shot and killed Brown in August 2014 in Ferguson, Mo.
“If [Wilson] had worn a body camera, maybe the chances of knowing what exactly happened could have been higher,” she said.
The Case Against Body Cameras
Towson’s debate team countered that body cameras won’t make much difference. Junior Ben Goodman argued that the cameras are being promoted as another surveillance tool.
“The reason we’ve seen so many police willing to accept body cameras is because there’s already a framework being developed to make body cameras extend policing power rather than curtail it,” he said.
Korey Johnson, a senior, challenged the notion that cameras will keep an eye on police.
“[The Rwandan Team’s] argument is based on an assumption of logic that contends if we simply start watching police officers that they will no longer do violent things,” she said. “But history and the present day both prove that this is not the case.”
Sierra Underdue, in the concluding argument, said despite some incidents that were recorded, justice was not served on behalf of the victims.
“[The Sandra Bland case yielded] video evidence, however, that video data contained questionable skips and glitches that begs on lookers to question the integrity of the video footage,” Underdue said.
Bland, 28, was found hanging in her Texas jail cell last July, three days after she was arrested during a traffic stop. Officials said her death was a suicide.
Towson Wins The Debate
The audience sided with the Towson debate team that body cameras would not curtail police brutality.
Preparing for the debate was easy for Johnson who participated in Freddie Gray protests earlier this year.
“When you’re debating on the negative team, it’s always already an uphill battle because you have to disprove the affirmative to some level,” she said. “I think because we both (referring to herself and Underdue) believe that body cameras are not essential to solving police brutality it was kind of easy.”
Goodman, a St. Paul, Minnesota native, said he did not have an opinion on body cameras before the debate. But he sided with his teammates after researching the topic.
He said it might be true that putting cops on camera will help them be more accountable but there are other factors to consider in recording people.
“You have to consider where the footage is being stored, what it’s being used for, who has access to it…,” Goodman said. “I don’t think it’s the right time to just come on out with body cameras; there are too many issues to implement it.”
Rwandan Team Affirmatively In Agreement
The preparations were not as easy for iDebate Rwanda. For starters, the policing culture is different in Rwanda than in the United States.
“Police officers are more friendly in Rwanda,” said Clemence Mboibozi. “We don’t have these cases of brutality like in America.”
They were also overwhelmed with what they read about police brutality in the U.S.
“[The police job is] primarily to protect and the fact that they're being brutal really pissed me off,” said Maya Musenga.
While the Rwandan team argued in favor of body cameras, they agreed with some of the Towson team’s argument that cameras, by themselves, won’t solve the problem.
“[Body Cameras] should come in as a contribution but the biggest issue is ‘us’ and how we view things,” said Mboibozi who added there needs to be empathy for police and citizens.
Ekisa Monique added the two sides need to have a “hard conversation” about why they don’t trust each other.
“They have to have that conversation and try to understand each other,” she said.