Fairfax County Police Department's Body-Worn Camera Pilot Project: An Evaluation

Fairfax County Police Department's Body-Worn Camera Pilot Project: An Evaluation

Source

Department of Justice, Law and Criminology - The American University, Washington, DC

Authors

Richard R. Bennett, Ph.D., Brad Bartholomew, Ph.D., and Holly Champagne, J.D.

In 2017, the Fairfax County (Virginia) Police Department, known as FCPD, decided to launch a pilot implementation of body-worn cameras (BWCs) to learn what the technology involved, the response of its officers to it, what community members and local organization leaders would think, and the changes in policing practices and outcomes that would occur. Some police agencies in the Metropolitan Washington, DC area had already adopted BWCs and there was a push nation-wide to implement them quickly in the face of numerous high-profile and controversial interactions between police and citizens. FCPD officials wanted to proceed more cautiously and conduct a BWC pilot program first. They asked a team of researchers at American University in Washington, DC, to assist them. 

Click here to read the full report.