It's not personal, Davey. It's strictly business.

David Brooks must not interact with law enforcement much because he writes things like this.

The cameras will undermine communal bonds. Putting a camera on someone is a sign that you don’t trust him, or he doesn’t trust you. When a police officer is wearing a camera, the contact between an officer and a civilian is less likely to be like intimate friendship and more likely to be oppositional and transactional. Putting a camera on an officer means she is less likely to cut you some slack, less likely to not write that ticket, or to bend the regulations a little as a sign of mutual care.

I don't know about you, but I would like for my interactions with law enforcement to be "transactional". A cop isn't pulling you over because he wants to start an "intimate friendship" with you; he's pulling you over because he thinks you have broken a law. I don't want "intimate friendships with police officers. I want them to do their job. We pay them money, and they enforce the law.

I'm not sure why David Brooks wants "intimate friendship" with police officers. Maybe he doesn't have very many friends. However, most of us aren't looking for a new friend during our interactions with law enforcement, or the government in general. I'm not looking for an intimate friendship at the DMV or the tax assessor's office. Just go about your business and do your job.

It's not personal, Davey. It's strictly business.