Dramatic bystander video of a recent confrontation between Phoenix police and a black family has stirred outcry and prompted questions about why the officers weren’t wearing body cameras.
Although body-worn cameras are becoming a police standard nationwide, Phoenix is among the last big departments to adopt their widespread use.
Leaders of Phoenix quickly moved to fix that after the video emerged last month. About 950 cameras are being distributed to officers this week in the nation’s fifth-largest city.
Cellphone video shows Phoenix officers yelling obscenities and pointing their guns at a family with children after a report about shoplifting.
The use of body cameras has burgeoned over the past decade following a number of high-profile killings of black suspects by mostly white officers in places like Ferguson, Missouri.
