Recent high-profile deaths put police body cameras under new scrutiny

Police officers wearing body cameras don't solve many of the issues advocates think. Some of this is due to the limits of technology, human nature, physics, exigent circumstances, etc.
1) Body cameras are small and depend on small batteries. This means they have a certain amount of time that they can be operable. Try turning the record video on your camera and see how long it lasts.
2) Quite a few brands are lucky if they can make it through an entire shift without powering off. This is a particular issue if something happens and when you push the record button you either don't notice the red light or don't have time to check.
3) Due to various laws, rules, regulations, privacy concerns, etc. many agencies have policies about when a camera can be turned on or not. For instance, in my last agency it can't be where privacy is expected, and no crime has been committed or is suspected of being committed, such as in bathrooms or private homes.
4) Police are people, not robots. If you can forget where you left your wallet or keys are in times of no crisis, a police officer might forget to push the button on his camera when someone is shooting at them or physically attacks them.
5) Due to the conversation of the body cameras, the public has a tendency to distrust what the police say when there is no video. Conversely, they expect the police and others to believe them when there is no video of their actions.
6) Body cameras are the same as strapping a cell phone to your chest and turning on record. Do it sometime and go about your business and review it later. You should notice that it didn't record anything behind you and had a limited view of the side, top, and bottom. Things you thought were said or that you said, conversations, may have been a little different than what was on the video. If it recorded an assault that you were involved in or events that had a high level of stress, you will notice things occurred faster/slower/different order/or in a different manner than you remember.

LTC Eugene Chu
"Two recent police-involved civilian deaths are casting new scrutiny on the effectiveness of the technology: The Jan. 7 death of Tyre Nichols, who was allegedly beaten to death by Memphis police officers following a traffic stop, and the Jan. 18 fatal shooting by law enforcement officers of Manuel Esteban Paez Teran in Atlanta."...