Whether a law officer's dashboard camera needs to be on at all times depends upon the protocol of a given jurisdiction where the police officer works out of. There is no set law requiring that the camera needs to be on at all times or not in each given state.If you were arrested, there is no specific benefit that you can claim to have the resulting charges that were filed against you dropped as a result of no dashboard camera being on. In many jurisdictions throughout this country law enforcement do not have dashboard cameras and their installation depends upon the budgets of the community where the law enforcement officer is employed.