On July 6, Illinois resident Sonya Massey called police to report a suspected intruder in her home. Two Sangamon County Sheriff’s Office deputies responded to the call for service. Deputy Sean P. Grayson shot an unarmed Massey in the face, killing her in her own kitchen.
Grayson was quickly terminated and charged with first-degree murder.
Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker referred to the shooting as “heartbreaking” and suggested that a review of police training may be necessary.
In 2021, Pritzker signed a major police reform bill into law. “All Illinoisans will live in a safer and more just state with this law on the books,” said Pritzker at the time. The bill expanded training for police and required every police officer in Illinois to wear a body camera.
Neither police training nor the presence of body cameras saved Massey.
Body cameras are believed to reduce police force and to bring accountability to law enforcement, but the research does not always support their effectiveness to achieve such aims. In fact, some research has found that body cameras “appeared to increase police use of force.” Body cameras document police violence rather than deter it.
Politicians and police administrators argue that the cameras bring accountability to policing, but this cannot be assumed since officers can turn the devices on and off. Indeed, Grayson only activated his body camera after he shot Massey — a clear violation of policy. Had the second deputy not turned on their camera when arriving at the scene, there would be no documentation of the sequence of events leading up to the shooting.
Nevertheless, even in situations when body cameras were activated and officers aware that the devices were recording, the cameras still fail to deter heinous police brutality.
The officers who senselessly murdered George Floyd in May 2020 were wearing body cameras, as were the police who brutally killed Tyre Nicholas in January 2023. And now Sonya Massey. There will be others.
Over $3 billion has been paid in about the last decade to settle police misconduct claims in the U.S., with payouts increasing since 2015. The police murder of George Floyd resulted in a $27 million settlement, the largest pre-trial settlement in a civil rights wrongful death case in U.S. history. New York City alone paid $35 million to settle claims of police misconduct related to civil rights violations against those protesting Floyd’s murder. Tyre Nichols’ family has filed a $550 million civil lawsuit with a trial date set for 2025.
The evidence is clear that body cameras alone are largely ineffective in holding individual officers accountable and deterring bad behaviour, including brutality and murder. Officers must be held accountable, but the public should not be expected to continue to subsidize their bad deeds.
There is a simple solution: Require police officers to carry professional liability insurance to cover the cost of misconduct claims.
Many professionals carry insurance. Medical doctors carry coverage for malpractice. Why not police? Individual officers would assume the risks and liability associated with policing and increasing premium costs would likely help deter police misconduct.
We hear repeatedly that most police are good officers. Requiring police then to carry liability insurance would affect very few officers, while helping to get rid of the bad ones.
Derek Chauvin, the officer who murdered Floyd, had at least 22 documented complaints against him during his nearly two decades as an officer. Had Chauvin carried liability insurance, his individual premiums would have risen with each subsequent finding of misconduct, eventually driving him off the force when it became financially untenable for him to work as an officer.
Civil settlements would come directly from insurance companies, not the tax-paying public. Body camera recordings would serve as evidence of misconduct accusations and be useful in helping to set insurance premiums for officers.
Body cameras and police training have changed little. It’s time we tried something different. Making individual officers financially accountable for their own misdeeds is a place to start.
Christopher J. Schneider is professor of sociology at Brandon University in Manitoba, Canada. He has published seven books and more than 100 scholarly papers and essays including having published extensively on police body cameras.
