BWC TTA Updates

On September 12–14, 2023, the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) and the Body-Worn Camera (BWC) Training and Technical Assistance (TTA) team conducted the eighth national meeting of the BWC Policy and Implementation Program (BWCPIP). Because of circumstances surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic and changes made to the BWCPIP grantee requirements, the meeting was held annually virtually for the fourth time. This meeting provided a forum to discuss important issues related to BWC program and policy implementation, such as grant management and reporting responsibilities, policy compliance monitoring, procurement considerations, program cost anticipation, digital evidence management and integration, collaboration with prosecutors, strategic communications, emerging training practices, and BWC technology trends and developments.

Access the meeting recordings, slides, and report here.

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. Start with this template and modify as appropriate to streamline the information-gathering process and assist you with the vendor decision.

Download the Field Testing & Evaluation Form here.

This in-view commentary highlights the benefits and considerations of using BWC footage in After-Action Reports (AARs) and provides recommendations for incorporating them in organizational reviews of future significant events. We provide examples of how BWCs were used in AARs from the 2020 protests to support our recommendations.

Read the In-View here.

This webinar focused on academic studies examining how agencies are using BWC metadata. Speakers described their own experiences with how they connect and use that metadata generated from BWCs. Dr. Mike White of Arizona State University (and BWC TTA co-director) facilitated a discussion among a panel of speakers that included Dr. Kayla Freemon (DePaul University), Dr. John McCluskey (Rochester Institute of Technology), Adrian Martin (Rochester, NY PD), Cpt. Brendan Hooke (Fairfax County, VA PD), and Lt. Mike Lentz (BWC Program Manager; Fairfax County, VA PD).

Discussions included defining BWC metadata, emerging promising practices for BWC metadata, how Rochester, NY PD and Fairfax County, VA PD use their metadata, as well as Dr. Freemon's BWC metadata case study with the Phoenix, AZ PD.

Watch the webinar here.