Events to Record: An Examination of Required Activation for Body-Worn Cameras

Allison Reed, University of South Alabama

Description

Introduction

• The deployment of police body-worn cameras (BWCs) has increased across the country due to high public demand of police accountability and the call for an increased use of technology by the President’s 21 Century Task Force (2015).
• The use of BWCs allows police agencies to be more transparent when it comes to decision-making actions made by police officers.
• The increase in transparency has affected the communities in which BWCs are used and has led to a decrease of officer complaints in some communities.
• There is a lack of research on the connections between intended outcomes of BWC implementation (reduced complaints, reduced force instances, and increased funding) and the policies that dictate their actions.

Current Study Is policy-required activation points of BWCs associated with intended outcomes of implementing BWCs?