Police body camera
In policing equipment, a police body camera or wearable camera, also known as body worn video, body-worn camera, or body camera, is a wearable audio, video, or photographic recording system used by police to record events in which law enforcement officers are involved, from the perspective of the officer wearing it. They are typically worn on the torso of the body, pinned on the officer's uniform, on a pair of sunglasses, a shoulder lapel, or a hat. Police body cameras are often similar to body cameras used by civilians, firefighters, or the military, but are designed to address specific requirements related to law enforcement. Body cameras are used by law enforcement to record public interactions and gather video evidence at crime scenes. Current body cameras are much lighter and smaller than the first experiments with wearable cameras in the late 1990s. There are several types of body cameras made by different manufacturers. Each camera serves the same purpose, yet some function in slightly different ways or have to be worn in a specific way. Police in the United Kingdom first began wearing body cameras in 2005, which have since been adopted by numerous police departments and forces worldwide.
Many body cameras offer specific features like HD quality, infrared, night vision, fisheye lenses, or varying degrees of view. Other features specific to law enforcement are implemented in the hardware to integrate the body cameras with other devices or wearables. Another example is automatic triggers that start recording when the officer initiates a specific procedure, such as when a firearm or taser is drawn from a holster, when a siren is activated, or when the car door opens.
Usage support
With 88% of Americans and 95% of Dutch people supporting body cameras on police officers, there is strong public support for this technology. However, it is important to note that not all civilians are necessarily aware of the presence of bodycams. A study in Milwaukee revealed that awareness of the bodycams was comparatively low in the first year following implementation but increased after two more years. In that study, respondents were asked whether they thought bodycams would improve relationships between the police and community members: 84 percent agreed. An even larger proportion, 87 percent, agreed that Body-Worn Cameras would hold Milwaukee police officers accountable for their behaviors. These percentages hardly changed in the three years following introduction, which suggests that opinions such as these are independent of awareness of bodycams. According to findings in criminology, body-worn cameras have been shown to improve citizens reactions to police encounters.All costs and benefits, including indirect costs and benefits, have to be weighed against each other in a cost-benefit analysis, to be able to judge whether body cameras lead to a positive or negative business case. The police in Kent, United Kingdom, predicted a positive business case within two years after their investment of £1.8 million in body cameras, purely because of a reduction in the number of complaints.
Across various countries, but particularly in the United States, police body cameras have shown the potential to reduce complaints and enhance police officer accountability, although their effectiveness remains debatable.
In 2019, a team of researchers published the most comprehensive overview to date of the impact of BWCs. They based their overview on seventy empirical studies, most from U.S. jurisdictions. The study reports on officer behavior, officer perceptions, citizen behavior, citizen perceptions, police investigations, and police organizations.
Subsequent analysis of the research affirms their mixed findings about BWCs' effectiveness and draws attention to how the design of many evaluations fails to account for local contextual considerations or citizen perspectives, particularly among groups that disproportionately experience police violence.
Civilian behavior
Police body cameras have been cited in resulting in increased levels of compliance by civilians and lowered levels of complaints in relation to policing in their neighborhoods. At least 16 studies were aimed at examining the Impact of BWCs on civilian behavior. This can be measured by compliance with the police, willingness to call the police, willingness to cooperate in investigations or crime and disorder when an officer is present. The results were varied and some aspects have not been studied at all, for instance the concern that BWCs may reduce people's willingness to call the police due to worries about personal privacy.Civilian perception
One study found that when looking at support for BWCs race, ethnicity, differing neighborhoods, and other demographics had an effect on support for BWCs. Most likely due to the goal of transparency and trust in police that are often linked to BWCs. On the topic of public view of the footage release aspect of BWCs, another study found that race, gender, and police accountability had a significant impact on the concerns of citizens opinions of the release of BWC footage. Another factor of citizen support is transparency of police work which is one of the main points brought up by citizens when discussing BWCs. A nationwide study found that the public is enthused by the thought of BWCs to improve transparency in police work. However, within the same study it was found that there was less agreement on two factors: trust in policing and the ability of BWCs to improve police-citizen relationships. It appears that throughout studies there are different reasons behind why the public would feel approving or disapproving of the main issues such as trust in police legitimacy, transparency, release of BWC footage, officer accountability, etc. The public in general has differing attitudes in how and if BWCs are fixing the issues that they are supposed to target. BWCs have shown effect on how people feel about these main issues with the most consistent category being that they do gain a sense of transparency when viewing law enforcement.Officer behavior
Impact on officer behavior is measured by complaints, use of force reports, arrests/citations or proactive behaviors. A study regarding the impact of police body cameras came to the conclusion that these cameras have a proven link to a decrease in complaints regarding use of excessive force and misconduct of police officers. The University of Las Vegas Nevada's Center for Crime and Justice Policy and the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department carried out this study. The study found that police body cameras could also result in various reduced costs as a result of simplifying the processes from when a complaint is made to when it is addressed. The study, which was funded by the U.S. The Department of Justice, overall found that police body cameras can improve police and community relations, reduce misconduct complaints, use of excessive force by police, and provide significant cost savings in relation to court costs. Conducted with approximately 400 Las Vegas police officers, the study's trial showed that officers wearing cameras had 30% fewer misconduct complaints and 37% fewer incidents with excessive force, compared to smaller or increased rates in the control group. The use of police body cameras also led to an 8% increase in citations and a 6% rise in arrests. Despite annual costs ranging from $828 to $1,097 per officer, the technology apparently saved over $4,000 per officer annually by reducing complaint investigations.A 2018 report by the Bureau of Justice Statistics explained that the main reasons for the adoption of police body cameras by police departments was mainly to improve the safety of officers, to increase the quality of evidence that was gathered, and to reduce complaints made by civilians. Research from this report has shown that there are mixed results regarding how effective police body cameras are in achieving these goals. The report's review of around 70 studies showed that there were no consistent or significant impacts on issues such as the use of force, officer safety, and more. This essentially concluded that police body cameras effectively had “no effect” on various aspects of police behavior.