Should all police officers wear body cameras?
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KEY THEMES
Politics
Law Enforcement
Police Reform
location
United States
KEY SOURCES
CATO Institute
Police Quarterly
RAND Corporation
Journal of Quantitative Criminology
Journal of Community Psychology
European Journal of Criminology
Annual Review of Economics
Criminal Justice and Behavior
Applied Psychology in Criminal Justice
Urban Institute
Brookings Institution
WHY THIS QUESTION MATTERS:
In recent weeks, protests calling for police reform have swept the nation and the globe. These protests began with the killing of George Floyd at the hands of law enforcement officers in Minneapolis. Lawmakers have responded with numerous police reforms at the state and federal level, including competing federal proposals from the house and senate.
While data and research emerges on the new reform policies, we’re covering a police reform proposal that’s been debated for the last decade: body cameras on police officers. While many police departments across the country have already adopted body cameras, there are still no consistent policies for when they are required, how videos will be released to the public, and how long footage should be stored.
Today, we will walk through the general benefits and drawbacks of requiring body cameras for on-duty police officers.
What are Body-Worn Cameras (BWCs):
According to Urban Institute, Body-worn cameras (BWCs) are small devices that police officers can affix to their person—in a head-, shoulder-, or chest-mounted position—that can audio and video record their interactions with community members. BWCs have received strong support from the public and, in recent years, increased buy-in from police leadership and officers because of their ability to improve accountability and transparency and enhance the collection of evidence.
BWCs, through their associated recordings, have the potential to both expose discretionary decisions made in the field and subject them to review.
Who’s currently using them?
According to the Police Executive Research Forum, as of 2018 a nationally representative
sample of police agencies estimated that one-third of American law enforcement agencies currently deploy BWCs to some or all of their officers, and an additional 50 percent of agencies have immediate plans to deploy them.
Recent Developments:
Police actions and decisions in the field have been the focus of substantial research. Yet, recent high‐profile incidents of police excessive force have generated greater political and social salience to this matter. Flowing from this have been greater calls for oversight and review of police decisions. Body‐worn cameras (BWCs) are one organizationally based measure that has been strongly advocated to address these concerns.
Billions of dollars are being spent worldwide on the roll-out of body-worn cameras for police officers. With so much at stake, there is an urgent need to understand whether body-cameras are helping police officers and members of the public, and under what conditions they work best.
Today we’ll walk you through some of the research to date.
THE COMMON THREAD:
Laws should be enforced with accountability and reasonable transparency.
FIND YOUR THREAD:
Supporters of BWCs point to the increased transparency in policing that encourages “good” behavior. Opponents argue that videos are an imperfect witness and behavioral impacts are unknown.
What do you think?
Yes, all police officers should wear body cameras.
Reason 01
Body cameras act as an unbiased witness which can increase accountability for misconduct.
Proponents of police body cameras argue that video can provide an unambiguous, unbiased, and accurate record of police encounters in court cases. For example, a University of Cincinnati police officer shot an unarmed man in the head during a traffic stop. The officer then claimed that he was dragged down the street and used force as a means of self defense, which the video footage later disproved. The incident provides an example of how useful body camera footage can be to officials investigating allegations of police misconduct. CATO Institute
In the age of social media and recording, the cameras provide an additional viewpoint. Frontline officers are growing increasingly wary of being videotaped while on duty and it has become abundantly clear that citizens will film police even if the police themselves are not filming their own actions. Given this observation, one could certainly question why more departments have not implemented BWCs to give a “second lens” viewpoint of police–citizen encounters. Police Quarterly
Reason 02
BWCs encourage better behavior from police and citizens.
Though results are mixed, there is some evidence that the presence of a camera may reduce use of force. If officers turned cameras on and off during their shift then use-of-force increased, whereas if they kept the cameras rolling for their whole shift, use-of-force decreased. RAND Corporation
In a 2013 study about single police department, complaints against officers dropped an astonishing 88% when body cameras were used. Furthermore, use of force incidents dropped 50%, reducing the risk of physical injury to both officers and the public. Journal of Quantitative Criminology
In some studies, BWCs also lead to a decrease in low-level citations; however, low‐level arrests were unaffected. Journal of Community Psychology
Reason 03
BWCs increase trust in law enforcement.
Many departments implement BWCs to improve community trust. Police body cameras are overwhelmingly popular across political and socio-economic demographics. Researchers have conducted a body camera survey on a small number of law enforcement leaders. The results show that half of police commanders would support body cameras being used in their agency and that two-thirds of commanders believe that the public supports body cameras because "society does not trust police officers." CATO Institute
Research shows that BWCs can improve perception of police performance. Drivers in a study's experimental group encountered the traffic police officers wearing BWCs and were notified that the encounter was being filmed, whereas those in the control group experienced business-as-usual traffic stops. A survey administered to drivers after completion of the traffic stop showed that BWCs significantly increased citizens’ satisfaction with the encounter and citizens’ general perceptions of the police. European Journal of Criminology
Another study found that the use of BWCs reduced complaints of police behavior by 93%. We discuss these results in terms of an "observer effect" that influences both officers' and citizens' behavior and assess what we interpret as treatment diffusion between experimental and control conditions within the framework of "contagious accountability." RAND, Criminal Justice and Behavior
No, body cameras should not be required for all police officers.
Reason 01
A BWC is an imperfect witness subject to public opinion.
The camera offers an imperfect observer. At the end of the day, it is imperative to keep in mind that BWC footage only shows what the suspect is doing and not the officer. This may result in a bias against the suspect since a viewer would only see what the suspect is doing and not the officer. Police Quarterly
Presence of video does not solve for bias of the video observer. Seemingly objective video of a police encounter is susceptible to biased interpretation. Studies show that, while watching the same video, different conclusions were drawn about what transpired, who was culpable, the character of the individuals involved, and the level of force used based on observers’ focus and their racial attitudes. This finding exemplifies the influence of implicit racial attitudes on perceptions of seemingly objective video. Applied Psychology in Criminal Justice
The public can lash out at law enforcement even when a prosecutor or a grand jury decides that the use of force was justified. If a video is perceived by the media or public to show excessive use of force, racial bias, or both, officers may face backlash regardless of the outcome in the court of law. This is concerning as research shows that individuals who view video of an actually justified shooting usually rated the shooting as unjustified. Therefore, BWC footage will fail to result in a “Black and White” consensus that a shooting was either “justified” or “not justified.” Police Quarterly
Reason 02
BWCs are highly expensive and may create privacy concerns.
The impact of BWCs on police behavior is unclear. In a review of seventy empirical studies, BWCs have not had statistically significant or consistent effects on most measures of officer and citizen behavior or citizens’ views of police. Policy implications from available evidence are not clear‐cut, but most likely BWCs will not be an easy panacea for improving police performance, accountability, and relationships with citizens. Criminology & Public Policy
Early research on this technology found that officers equipped with body cameras were significantly less likely to engage in force and receive citizen complaints. However, more recent studies with larger sample sizes have had mixed findings about the impact of body cameras on use of force, citizen complaints, and other police activities and behaviors. Urban Institute
In a Nevada study, officers equipped with body-worn cameras generated fewer complaints and use of force reports relative to officers without cameras; however, these officers also made more arrests and issued more citations than their non-BWC counterparts. Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology
A different study found that wearing body cameras increased assaults against officers by an average of 15% and did not reduce police use of force. This could be due to officers feeling more able to report assaults once they are captured on camera — providing them the impetus and/or confidence to do so. However, more attention should be paid to how these devices are implemented. RAND Corporation, European Journal of Criminology
Reason 03
Current UBI proposals have varying objectives and would be politically infeasible at a large scale.
You might think that as long as the BWCs aren’t doing any harm, it makes sense to keep using them. But BWC programs are extremely costly, mostly due to the costs of storing and managing the video footage. DC spent $1 million dollars on cameras, and will spend an additional $2 million each year for data storage going forward. Given this new evidence that BWCs have no impact on police behavior in the District, DC might be better off spending its taxpayers’ dollars in other ways. Brookings Institution
Additionally, citizens being constantly videotaped by police officers does pose a potential reduction in privacy for the public that cannot be ignored. Police Quarterly
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