In policing equipment, a police body camera or wearable camera, also known as body worn video (BWV), body-worn camera (BWC), 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, 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 (36%) but increased after two more years (76%). In that study, respondents were asked whether they thought bodycams would improve relationships between the police and community members: 84 percent (strongly) agreed. An even larger proportion, 87 percent, (strongly) 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 (74%). 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. 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. A nationwide study found that the public is enthused about the potential for BWCs to improve transparency in police work. However, within the same study it was found that there was less agreement in terms of whether BWCs can impact trust in policing or improve police–citizen relationships.
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 (UNLV) Center for Crime and Justice Policy and the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department (LVMPD) 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. 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 (in relation to civilian complaints), officer safety, and more. This essentially concluded that police body cameras effectively had “no effect” on various aspects of police behavior.
Officer perception At least 32 studies focused on officer attitudes about cameras. First of all, the authors describe the methodological challenges of many of these studies. Despite those issues and despite mixed findings, one consistent theme is that once officers start using cameras, they feel positive or become more positive about BWCs.
Police investigations This aspect consists of criminal investigations, crime resolution, intelligence gathering or court proceedings and outcomes. Prosecutors rarely bring cases against the police and it remains to be seen whether this will change much as a result of BWCs. Empirical results are hard to find. Three studies (all from the UK) revealed positive outcomes: officers can pursue prosecution even without victim cooperation and cases may more likely be charged.
Police organizations This is about training, policies, accountability, supervision et cetera. It is the least researched area, with some exceptions. Technologies often have unintended consequences on police. Much more research is needed to understand whether BWC footage can help officers to learn skills better and whether that in turn has an impact on their actual behavior. BWCs can - in theory - strengthen the accountability structure in an organization, but perhaps not if existing accountability mechanisms in the agency are weak. BWCs for instance will unlikely improve mentorship or supervision in an agency that does not value such mentorship or supervision.
Legal implications Body cameras have been shown to be valuable in legal processes, especially in securing quick guilty pleas for lower-level offenses. Footage that is obtained from police body cameras is captured from the officer's perspective, which can allow for prosecutors to have indisputable evidence against individuals that are involved in lower-level offenses such as traffic violations and trespassing. This results in less cases going to trial as the concrete evidence provided by the cameras can make a plea deal the only reasonable option left for a defendant. Early research considering the effects of both police body worn cameras and bystander smartphone footage included Karl T. Muth and Nancy Jack's research on body cameras in 2015 (published in spring 2016), written at a time when body worn cameras were unpopular among officers and policing organizations were challenging bystanders' right to record officers: "Here, we argue that if employers may record their employees, then people, as employers of the police, likewise should be able to record the police when in public."
Storage Features such as cloud storage have been trialed and implemented into the cameras and the data-storage process. Axon allows sharing footage outside the police department, for instance with district attorneys, other prosecutors or the courts.
Video content analysis, such as facial recognition or automatic indexing of recordings to simplify search, can help to reduce the time needed to find relevant fragments in recorded data that would otherwise be overwhelming.
Usage concerns While body cameras aim to increase transparency and accountability, they have also sparked debates over privacy and effectiveness. There is concern about the privacy of the people being filmed (suspects, victims, witnesses) but also about that of the officers wearing the cameras or the officers whose actions are recorded by their colleagues.
Capabilities Ever since body cameras were introduced, there has been a debate over whether capabilities that make the camera superior to that of the officer's eyes should be allowed. For instance, infra-red recordings could in hindsight clearly show that a suspect did or did not carry a gun in his hand, but the officer at the scene may not have been able to see this. This issue forces companies to choose whether to incorporate 'super human' features, or not. Body cameras are able to record for up to 12 hours. If a law enforcement officer turns on their body camera at the beginning of their shift, they are able to record footage for the entire duration of the shift.Are Police Body Cameras Always On?- Lenslock (Archive)