Both the presence and absence of video surveillance is playing a key role in Ferguson.
Controversially, police released a video that appears to depict the victim robbing a store and assaulting an employee, as shown in the clip below:
Some felt this was prejudicial and irrelevant to the shooting 10 minutes later.
Others argued that this provided context to his later interactions with the police.
Unfortunately, during the shooting, there was no video surveillance nor recordings from personal phones, with only a limited number of eyewitnesses.
This has increased calls for the use of 'body cameras', something that one study we covered shows has the potential to reduce the amount of police violence / misconduct. And even if there was none here, it would provide better evidence of the officer's innocence.
Indeed, a White House petition calling for mandatory use of body worn cameras has already gained enough signatures to get a Presidential response.