Research Resource

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.

In an effort to improve accountability and citizen confidence in the police department,Chief Harteau and the Minneapolis Police Department (MPD), decided to evaluate the use of body worn cameras by officers. Staff researched and a conducted a product search for body worn cameras. Research included the gathering of information on policies, best practices, required infrastructure, devices, costs and operational support.

The purpose of this paper is to assess perceptions of body-worn cameras (BWCs) among citizens who had BWC-recorded police encounters, and to explore the potential for a civilizing effect on citizen behavior. From June to November 2015, the authors conducted telephone interviews with 249 citizens in Spokane (WA) who had a recent BWC-recorded police encounter. Respondents were satisfied with how they were treated during the police encounter and, overall, had positive attitudes about BWCs. However, only 28 percent of respondents were actually aware of the BWC during their own encounter.

Under certain conditions, experimental treatment effects result in behavioral modifications that persist beyond the study period, at times, even after the interventions are discontinued. On the other hand, there are interventions that generate brief, short-term effects that “fade out” once the manipulation is withdrawn or when the in-study follow-up period is completed. These scenarios are context specific.

The City of London Police (CoLP) force has been awarded a grant to provide body-worn video cameras (BWVCs) to frontline operational staff. The bid included a proposal for evaluation of the effect the technology may have on the main areas of concern. There are numerous benefits envisaged in the correct use of this technology, but those that have been considered of particular importance for the CoLP are:

External stakeholders’ acceptance of a police innovation shapes how it spreads and impacts the larger criminal justice system. Therefore, a lack of support among external stakeholders for BWCs can short-circuit their intended benefits. Existing research studies have, however, focused on the implications of BWCs for police officers and the citizens with whom they come into direct contact. As such, there is little direction for agencies concerning the perceptions and concerns about BWCs from others who are affected by a department’s decision to implement a new program.

The Center for Violence Prevention and Community Safety at Arizona State University (ASU) has developed this facilitator’s guide and accompanying training slides as a resource for law enforcement agencies seeking to develop or modify their body‐worn camera (BWC) training programs. These training materials should be used only as reference documents for agencies developing and deploying BWCs. They are intended to provide guidance and are not designed for yearly continuing training or academy use.

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.

Research on body-worn cameras (BWC) has tended, through evaluations or randomized controlled trials, to look to demonstrate some assumed benefit or consequence of the use of BWC. This article is concerned with the ways in which police officers use and talk about BWC and draw on ethnographic research over the past 30 months in one force as it rolled out the use of cameras. BWC have become a useful tool in the array of those available to officers. At the same time, they come with some downsides.

In many countries, the use of police body-worn cameras (BWCs) offer new access points and oversight mechanisms to monitor police–public interactions. BWCs offer researchers front-row seats in Hotel Criminology from the police officer’s perspective. This discussion aims to caution researchers about getting too comfortable in their hotel armchairs as a result of the introduction of BWCs. Questions arise as to whether these cameras offer police organizations a legitimate reason to refuse research access where, alternatively, BWC footage could be viewed.