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Police Body-Worn Cameras

Video cameras worn by police officers are one of the most recent and far-reaching technologies to be incorporated into police work. “Body-worn cameras (BWCs) are small, transportable devices worn by officers to record interactions with the public. The cameras can be attached to an officer’s clothing, sunglasses, or helmet. BWCs can produce video and audio recordings. The footage is saved on a local storage device or uploaded to a web-based storage platform. Some BWCs can upload video while in the field.”¹³ BWCs vary in their characteristics and capabilities including battery-life, size, placement options, quality of video, video and audio options, download capability, and cost.¹⁴

A 2016 Bureau of Justice Statistics survey found that 47% of local police departments used body-worn cameras; in about one-half of these agencies, all officers are equipped with BWCs.¹⁵ Calls for the use of body-worn cameras began after the shooting of an unarmed African American teen, Michael Brown, in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014. Then, in December 2014, President Barack Obama issued a proposal for $75 million in federal funding to local and state law enforcement agencies to purchase body-worn cameras. As discussed in several sections of this book, the cameras are intended to have many effects; examining these effects is one of the most popular topics of policing research today. From a police perspective, the five most commonly expressed reasons for using BWCs are the following:¹⁶

 Improve officer safety

 Reduce/resolve citizen complaints

 Improve evidence quality

 Reduce agency liability

 Improve officer/agency accountability

Photo 1.4 Police body-worn cameras have the potential to improve policing, but they have limitations as well.

AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes

For agencies that did not use BWCs in 2016, the primary reason was cost: cost of the cameras themselves, as well as cost associated with video storage, maintenance, and public records requests. This is not a minor issue. Most cameras cost between $300 and $500, not to mention all of the other related costs. Depending on the size of the agency and its budget, the cost of this technology can be significant.

The use of BWCs does not come without other concerns as well. In the 2016 survey, agency representatives identified privacy as the most common obstacle associated with the use of BWCs.¹⁷ Not surprisingly, some citizens (especially certain victims) may not wish their interactions with officers to be recorded. However, if the camera is not always on, the police may be criticized for not having video when critical incidents occur. Likewise, if cameras are always on, officers are not afforded any privacy at work. Another consideration is if footage is used as evidence, will the video show an accurate picture of what happened, or only what was in view of the camera? The video may not show the intent of officers’ actions and may not reveal important aspects of the whole situation in which officers acted. Further, cameras have been touted as a way to increase transparency and accountability of police work but interestingly, black citizens have been found to be more skeptical of the actual benefits of the technology.¹⁸ Yet another possible issue centers on the prosecution of subjects where there is no video. Will prosecutors be at a disadvantage in establishing proof should there not be video as evidence? With regard to research on the impact of BWCs, studies clearly show that BWCs lead to fewer citizen complaints. As for BWCs and the use of force, some studies show that BWCs lead to less frequent use of force, some do not.¹⁹ When there are effects, the reasons are not entirely clear—do BWCs affect police behavior, citizens’ behavior, or both? While police body-worn cameras are not likely to be a panacea to the problems that sometimes arise in police–citizen encounters, their potential to strengthen police accountability is a strong argument in favor of their use.

Citizens’ freedoms, combined with the ability to vote and their critical role in the accountability process, make citizens important in our system of government. The police operate in this environment. Because citizens have freedoms from government, our society has placed limitations on the police. Further, police must ultimately answer to citizens regarding their conduct and operations. One might argue that these circumstances have made the job of the police more difficult—or at least more difficult to do effectively. Effectively policing a free society is a challenge.