Legal Resources

Body-worn cameras are recording devices police officers wear as part of their uniforms to document what they see as they perform their duties. Body cameras continue to be a significant focus for state law makers as they consider and enact legislation to address police-community relations. To date, thirty-four states and the District of Columbia have created laws for body cameras. The body-worn camera laws database provides a list of all thirty-four states along with their specific BWC laws. 

Many community stakeholders and criminal justice leaders have suggested placing body-worn cameras (BWCs) on police officers improves the civility of police-citizen encounters and enhances citizen perceptions of police transparency and legitimacy.  In response, many police departments have adopted this technology to improve the quality of policing in their communities. However, the existing evaluation evidence on the intended and unintended consequences of outfitting police officers with BWCs is still developing.

Implementing body-worn cameras in a police agency has an impact on virtually every key aspect of police operations, including training, investigations, community relations, resource allocation, and more. With the growing adoption of body-worn cameras, the need for effective law enforcement training is paramount to help ensure that officers have the necessary knowledge and tools to confront the difficult tasks they encounter on a daily basis. The following considerations and resources will serve as helpful information in support of this challenge.

To contribute to the important national debate about body cameras the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) then-President Theodore Simon established a working group in December 2014 and, in July 2015, the NACDL Board of Directors adopted a set of principles on b

Body worn cameras are often regarded as the solution to improving strained police-community relationships and increasing police accountability and transparency. While BWCs play an important part in police reform efforts, they are just one piece to the puzzle. Implementing BWCs within a law enforcement agency is a complex endeavor with many different facets that agencies must take into consideration to ensure that the desired outcomes are achieved.

It is generally precieved that the benefits of BWCs include the ability to increase transparency and police legitimacy, improve behavior among both police officers and citizens, and reduce citizen complaints and police use of force. Less established in the literature, however, is the value of BWCs to aid in the arrest, prosecution, and conviction of intimate partner violence (IPV) offenders.This article examines the effect of pre- and post-camera deployment on a number of outcomes related to arrest, prosecution, and conviction of intimate partner violence offenders.

The National Institue of Justice has released its 2016 Primer and market survey on BWC's. The paper provides background context for BWC, methodology for developing the market survey, compiled results from the market survey, and considerations for implementing BWCs.

To read more click here. 

A Memorandum of Understanding, or MOU, is an agreement between two or more parties that can be used to establish partnerships or collaborations.  Depending on the specific needs of individual law enforcement agencies implementing new Body-Worn Camera (BWC) programs, creating one or multiple MOUs may be beneficial in formalizing the expectations and responsibilities of all organizations involved.  This memo will cover three scenarios in which MOUs can be helpful: when forging agreements between two or more police departments, between police and prosecutors, and between police and other agenc

This map shows the current status of state legislation and police department policies regarding public access to police body-worn cameras (“bodycams” or “BWCs”) around the United States under public records laws. This information is collated by the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press and is updated regularly.

For more information and to view the map, click here.

Body-worn cameras are recording devices police officers wear as part of their uniforms to document what they see as they perform their duties.