Technology

Resources about Technology

BWC Field Testing & Evaluation Form

The BWC TTA team has just released a new resource: BWC Field Testing & Evaluation Form. This resource will help agencies evaluate the performance and suitability of different models of body-worn cameras (BWCs). The Field Testing Form (an Excel workbook) includes multiple tabs for field testers to record ratings of different aspects of BWCs, across different brands. As agencies implementing BWCs may consider many different aspects, the Testing and Evaluation Resource should be adapted to meet your agency's needs.

Assessing the Utility of Body-Worn Cameras for Collegiate Police Agencies

Nearly all scholarship on body-worn cameras (BWCs) has focused on municipal police departments, as they comprise a majority of sworn agencies. Given the unique environment of collegiate law enforcement agencies, however, it is possible that their paths to BWCs—and the benefits and challenges they experience—vary from that of more traditional agencies. Using a survey of 126 collegiate police departments and in-depth interviews with 15 collegiate police executives, this study describes their goals, challenges, and benefits related to BWCs.

BWC and In-Car Video Considerations

Law enforcement agencies and community leaders recognize that body-worn cameras (BWCs) and in-car video systems can promote transparency, officer safety, agency development and reform, efficiency, and officer accountability. When considering acquiring BWCs or in-car video systems, or integrating the systems together, agencies must consider the unique capabilities of each. In this article, we briefly describe BWCs and in-car video systems, and then we discuss aspects of implementing BWCs, in-car video systems, or both.

Body-Worn Camera Footage: What do we do with all that evidence? (Part II)

The US Department of Justice (DOJ) Office of Justice Programs (OJP) Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) launched the Body-Worn Camera (BWC) Policy and Implementation Program (PIP) in FY 2015 to assist law enforcement agencies in enhancing or implementing BWC programs. PIP’s primary goals are to improve public safety, reduce crime, and improve trust between police and the citizens they serve.

External Factors that Impact BWC Program Staffing

Two challenging aspects of implementing or expanding a body-worn camera (BWC) program are ensuring projecting staffing is sufficient to support the program as well as anticipating the impacts on existing staff. Several variables make staffing challenging—some of which an agency can control while others are imposed. Ideally, agencies could simply use a staffing formula based on deployed BWC units, but the complexity of BWC issues makes that impractical.