Body Worn Cameras: Impact on Police and Public Safety
This paper examines the impact of Body Worn Cameras (BWCs) on public safety and law enforcement effectiveness in the United States. Drawing on a review of empirical studies and field experiments, the paper explores how BWCs influence key operational areas including evidence collection, police job performance, citizen complaints, and use-of-force incidents. It also addresses the precautions agencies must take when adopting BWCs, including cost considerations, privacy concerns, storage requirements, and legal implications. The paper concludes that, despite notable challenges, BWCs represent a significant advancement for law enforcement agencies in promoting accountability, transparency, and safer interactions between police officers and the public.
- Introduction: Background on police technology and BWC overview
- Perception of Body Worn Cameras: Varying public and departmental views on BWCs
- Uses and Importance of Body Worn Cameras: Evidence gathering, job performance, and complaints
- Use-of-Force Reduction: BWCs reducing excessive force incidents
- Precautions and Challenges in BWC Adoption: Costs, privacy, storage, and legal concerns
- Conclusion: BWCs as an advancement in law enforcement
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What makes this paper effective
- Grounds each claim in cited empirical studies, including randomized controlled trials from Rialto and Orlando, lending credibility to its conclusions.
- Presents a balanced perspective by acknowledging both proponent and critic positions before evaluating the evidence, avoiding one-sided advocacy.
- Organizes the argument thematically — moving from general perception to specific operational benefits to practical challenges — creating a logical progression that is easy to follow.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates effective use of empirical literature review to support policy analysis. Rather than relying on opinion alone, it consistently anchors claims about BWC effectiveness in specific field studies with page references, then draws broader conclusions from that evidence base. This pattern of claim → citation → implication is repeated consistently across sections.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with background on police departments and the role of technology, introduces BWCs, and states its research purpose. It then surveys public and departmental perceptions before systematically addressing four operational dimensions: evidence gathering, job performance, citizen complaints, and use-of-force. A final section outlines precautions and disadvantages before closing with a brief evaluative conclusion. The structure mirrors a standard literature review format suitable for an undergraduate criminal justice course.
Introduction
Police departments across the United States, and indeed around the globe, have long been regarded as central agencies in the maintenance of law and order. They are charged with ensuring that a wide range of laws — from statutes governing petty theft and traffic offences to those addressing serious crimes such as murder and assault — are followed, and that tranquility and public order are maintained. It is this enormous and central role that compels governments to continually improve and equip their police forces.
In the USA, police departments in every state have undergone significant changes across all sectors of their operations over the decades. These changes are visible in their protective gear, the weapons they use, the vehicles deployed in daily operations, the communication systems used to coordinate security and rescue efforts, the artificial intelligence employed in solving crimes, and the processes used for evidence collection at crime scenes.
One development widely regarded as a positive step is the adoption of Body Worn Cameras (BWCs), also referred to by some as Officer Video Cameras (OVCs). These are specialized camera devices worn on the front of a police officer's uniform, providing a field of view equivalent to that of the officer. They are intended to remain active throughout the entire period that an officer is on duty in the field.
The BWC is meant to assist police officers in several ways during the execution of their duties. This paper examines the various roles BWCs play, the advantages and efficiencies they bring to the police force, the challenges they present, and the solutions proposed to make BWCs more effective and more widely accepted among police departments. An extensive literature review was conducted to identify and evaluate the evidence surrounding these aspects of BWC use.
References
Ariel, B., Farrar, W. A., & Sutherland, A. (2015). The effect of police body-worn cameras on use of force and citizens' complaints against the police: A randomized controlled trial. Quantitative Criminology. Springer Science & Business Media, New York.
Halac, Y. (2016). Body worn video: Looking beyond the device. Security Technology Executive.
Headley, A. M., Guerette, R. T., & Shariati, A. (2017). A field experiment of the impact of body-worn cameras (BWCs) on police officer behavior and perceptions. Journal of Criminal Justice, 53. Elsevier.
Jennings, W. G., Lynch, M. D., & Fridell, L. A. (2015). Evaluating the impact of police officer body-worn cameras (BWCs) on response-to-resistance and serious external complaints: Evidence from the Orlando Police Department (OPD) experience utilizing a randomized controlled experiment. Journal of Criminal Justice, 43.
Young, J. T., & Ready, J. T. (2015). The impact of on-officer video cameras on police–citizen contacts: Findings from a controlled experiment in Mesa, AZ. Journal of Experimental Criminology. Springer Science and Business Media, Dordrecht.
White, M. D., Gaub, J. E., & Terpstra, N. (2017). Exploring the potential for body-worn cameras to reduce violence in police–citizen encounters. Retrieved April 21, 2018, from https://www.bja.gov/bwc/pdfs/2017-Policing-Spokane-Force-and-Complaints.pdf
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