Police bodycam footage has been an insanely popular topic and has been known to be posted and extensively watched on social media platforms such as YouTube, TikTok and even Hulu, which features a show called “Body Cam” by teenagers and adults alike. It’s been an ongoing trend, especially among teenagers who find them entertaining to watch. The body cams usually consist of many different topics, such as high-risk situations, high-speed pursuits and small incidents that, on occasion, turn into something bigger.
There are many reasons people find the videos so addicting, one of the larger reasons being that the first-person point of view that isgiven by the body cams. The unfiltered, raw footage gives a feeling of suspense for the viewer. Along with that, viewers also find the videos enjoyable due to the arrests that are rather dramatic, with resistance against arrests and encounters with ‘‘Karens’’ who, instead of minding their own business, would rather call the police over minor and insignificant issues. Not only that, but rare cases, some of the videos can actually end up being pretty educational for the youth. For people who want to be a police officer, watching the videos often is a way to get an idea of how to handle high-stress situations and real-life scenarios that may come up while working in such a dangerous profession. It is also known that officers even watch their own bodycam footage to evaluate their actions and how they communicated with the person of interest, ensuring they complied with their department’s policies and regulations they set with their workers.
Personally, I prefer the body cams that involve the use of force. It releases just the right amount of dopamine into my brain that makes my day slightly more enjoyable despite piles of homework being assigned in the horrible but common life of a teenager. Is it morally righteous? Most likely not, but that’s besides the point.
On YouTube, there are many channels that are well known, such as Columbus Police Body Cam and 50 Police Body Cam, and many more channels dedicated to posting such videos.
One of the more popular ones is EWU Bodycam, with more than three million subscribers. Each video averages hundreds of thousands to millions of views, and they post more intense and violent arrests that involve instances of kidnapping, homicides and confrontations that more often than not involve weapons. Despite that, there are channels like the other ones I listed that post more ‘‘tame’’ videos compared to EWU Bodycam, and their more popular videos consist of ‘‘vicious’’ dogs (rest assured, he was not vicious), shoplifters, house squatters and runaways of all kinds.
