Do Body Cams Bring Transparency & Accountability? No.
Ongoing calls for police accountability and for an end to police brutality have shifted police reform efforts towards technological solutions. Police body-worn cameras (BWCs) have become the center of those efforts. In 2015 President Obama’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing recommended widespread implementation of BWCs and the Department of Justice (DOJ) provided $20 million worth of funding to support the adoption of such efforts.
The most recent estimate, reported that as of 2016, 47% of general-purpose law enforcement agencies obtained BWCs. With 60% of local police departments and 49% of sheriff’s offices having fully implemented BWCs.
Generally this has been welcome from residents in most communities, especially those frustrated, angry, and holding resentment towards law enforcement. BWCs are often believed by the public to bring transparency and accountability to police agencies, and for some, improved interactions between citizens and police. While many police officers also support implementing BWCs, their reasons why and perceptions of how they impact interactions show particular attitudes toward the communities and overall society they “serve.”
Law enforcement agencies believe BWC programs improve agency image, decrease complaints and lawsuits, and refine the case filing process.
In Phoenix specifically, more than half (62.9%) of officers who were surveyed assumed BWCs would cause fewer contacts with citizens with 1 in 3 holding the belief BWCs would harm relations with the community. Though, in their meta-analysis of 30 studies on BWCs, Lum and colleagues found BWCs do not decrease overall officer proactivity, specifically when it comes to traffic and pedestrian stops. Pulling over more than 50,000 drivers on a typical day, traffic stops are the most frequent encounters people have with police. Racial disparities put non-white (i.e., Black and Hispanic) drivers at more risk for being stopped and for encountering a use of force event.
Officers tend to believe BWCs do not reduce harm for citizens or police, questioning if they change officer behavior at all. Take or police out of parentheses.
What Lum and colleagues also found, and is consistent with other studies on BWCs, there is no conclusive data pointing to the effectiveness of BWCs using a variety of measurements of citizen perceptions of police or citizen and officer behavior. When it comes to a reduction in use of force events by police, the implementation of BWCs does not change officer use of force.
When agencies place tight restrictions on officer discretion regarding camera activation BWCs are more likely to reduce use of force. But even the simple implementation of BWCs can cause push-back from officers. Organizational changes (e.g., new technologies, policies, programs) often create resistance from the individuals impacted by the changes. Even with a financial incentive for participants, officers in Boston declined a voluntary pilot BWCs program in 2016 citing concerns for being disciplined for minor offenses. Considering how police culture relies heavily on solidarity between those within the agency, it should come at no surprise that attitudes regarding BWCs are highly contagious.
This police culture also contributes to the “us versus them” mentality. The contrasts police make between those who do right and wrong or those who are “good” and “evil” directly impact the way they interact with citizens. The dehumanizing labels and pejorative categorization makes the officer more likely to demonize individuals who offend.
While there is a link between BWCs and a reduction in complaints against police, the cause for why is unclear. It could be a result of changes in behavior on part of citizens and/or police causing improved interactions.Researchers have also theorized the correlation may be due to citizens filing less complaints. Mistrust in the police could deter citizens from filing complaints. In 2022 Gallup reported only 45% of Americans had either a great deal or quite a lot of confidence in the police, down six percentage points from 2021. This represents only the second time confidence in the police has fallen below the majority level since Gallup began adding the police in 1993. A general distrust of an institution can certainly lead to individuals and communities ceasing to use those services. If citizens feel their complaints will not be heard or taken seriously, they may not take the time to file them.
Citizens might also have a misunderstanding of how BWCs operate within agencies and therefore rely on technology for accountability processes rather than file a complaint. Due to the widespread reform efforts of implementing BWCs, the public is mostly unaware of how BWC programs tend to lack consistent footage review, reliable policy changes, and can sometimes even cause increases in use of force.
For BWCs to possibly be effective in the ways expected by the public they would need to be implemented with other reforms and programs. Dedicated footage observing units, performance systems to track officer conduct, tight restrictions on officer discretion regarding camera activation, and other procedural justice training.remove parentheses around possibly.
The system of policing has expanded and evolved to incorporate all types of new technology, from energy weapons like the taser to surveillance systems like ShotSpotter. For all the advances in technology we have funded for police departments they have brought us no closer to safety. That is because the foundation of policing was not built on bringing safety to the public, and no amount of technological bandages can change that. Rather than continue to fund and increase funding toward systems of the state which have repeatedly failed us and perpetuated violence and harm, we should be approaching safety through avenues which can provide true security.
We cannot use technological solutions for policing and societal problems or else we are bound to add digital surveillance to the ever-growing pile of tools the state uses to afflict violence and oppression upon us.