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Is it within a federal court's authority to order local police officers to wear video cameras in an effort to create an "objective record" of police activity, as occurred last summer in New York City? What is the basis and is it advisable for the Department of Justice to impose reforms on local police activity via consent decrees or other means (see here and here)? What should we make of lawsuits, such as the one filed by police officers rejecting such oversight in Seattle? Are they attempts to vindicate the sovereignty of their own policing, or do they gloss over the serious problems in law enforcement that would go otherwise unchecked without federal involvement? Our experts answered these and other questions.

  • Prof. William G. Otis, Adjunct Professor of Law, Georgetown University Law Center
  • Prof. Samuel Walker, Emeritus Professor of Criminal Justice, University of Nebraska at Omaha