Body-worn Cameras

This intervention involves officers wearing cameras on their uniforms to increase citizens’ intentions to comply with police and improve their perceptions of police during traffic stops. The program is rated Promising. Drivers who encountered officers with cameras had statistically significant increases in both compliance and cooperation with officers and improved perceptions of procedural justice and police legitimacy, compared with drivers who encountered officers not wearing cameras. 

This involves police officers wearing cameras on their uniforms to improve the civility of their interactions with citizens. The program is rated Effective. There were statistically significant reductions in citizen complaints against police and police use-of-force reports for officers who wore cameras, compared with those who did not, and statistically significant reductions in complaints against control officers in the treatment districts, compared with officers in the untreated districts.

This program equips police with on-officer cameras to record their interactions with civilians. The program is rated No Effects. Camera use had no statistically significant effects on officers’ total number of proactive activities, specifically on the number of traffic stops or business checks, nor on arrests, citizen complaints, and use-of-force incidents. Officers with cameras conducted statistically significantly fewer subject stops, and statistically significantly more park and walks.

This program involves police use of video to improve evidence gathering and police and citizen behavior. The program is rated No Effects. There were no statistically significant differences in restraining orders issued or assaults on police between body-worn video treatment days and control days (when no officers wore body-worn video). Treatment days had statistically significantly higher rates of use of force, citizen complaints against police, and criminal charges, compared with control days.

This program involves law enforcement’s use of cameras to record interactions with civilians to reduce citizen fatalities. The program is rated Promising. Agencies that acquired cameras had statistically significant decreases in fatal police–citizen encounters after three years, compared with agencies that did not acquire cameras. There were no statistically significant differences in fatal encounters between a reduced set of agencies with cameras and matched agencies without cameras.

This program equips police with body cameras to record encounters with civilians. The program is rated No Effects. Camera use had no statistically significant effects on number of arrests, arrests with force, and summonses issued after 1 year. Officers wearing cameras had statistically significant reductions in complaints filed against them and made more stop reports. Camera use resulted in a statistically significantly reduced likelihood of lawful stops and frisks but fewer subjects searched.

This program equips police with on-officer cameras to record contacts with civilians. The program is rated Promising. Body-worn camera use resulted in statistically significant decreases in citizen complaints, and there were mixed results regarding camera use on arrest rates. There were no statistically significant differences in citizen resistance. There was a statistically significant increase in use of force, and less proactive, officer-initiated contact.

This program equips police with on-officer cameras to record contacts with civilians during intimate-partner violence incidents. The program is rated Promising. Camera use was statistically significantly more likely to result in arrests, charges filed, cases furthered, and both guilty pleas and verdicts. There was no statistically significant difference in sentence length. However, there was a statistically significantly greater reduction in case processing time in cases not involving a camera.

This is a police training to develop officers’ decision-making, de-escalation, empathy, rapport-building, and self-control skills to discourage use of force in interactions with citizens. The program is rated No Effects. There was a statistically significant increase in procedural justice priorities posttraining in the treatment group, compared with the control group, but there were no statistically significant effects on maintaining self-control, physical control priorities, or use of force.

Police body-worn cameras (BWCs) are designed to improve policing and the perceived legitimacy of the police and legal institutions. The program is rated No Effects. There were no statistically significant differences in police use of force, number of citizen complaints, or number of arrests for disorderly conduct for police officers who wore BWCs, compared with officers who did not wear BWCs.

The program is designed to reduce officer use-of-force incidents and citizen complaints by providing body-worn cameras to officers in the Las Vegas (Nevada) Metropolitan Police Department. The program is rated Promising. There was a statistically significant reduction in police use-of-force and citizen complaints, and a statistically significant increase in arrests and citations for officers who wore the BWCs, compared with non-BWC control group.

Police body-worn cameras are used to record police encounters with citizens during officers’ shifts in Birmingham South. Officers were instructed to begin recording as soon as they left their vehicles and to conclude recording once the situation was resolved. The program is rated Promising. There was a statistically significant reduction in officers’ use of force and citizen injury, but no statistically significant reduction in officer injury.

This is a police body-worm camera intervention that has been implemented across eight police departments in the United States and United Kingdom. The program equips officers with continuously recording body-worn cameras to record police and citizen interactions. The program is rated No Effects. There was no significant effect on police use of force, and use of cameras was associated with a statistically significant increase in assaults against officers.

This program equips individual police officers in Rialto, Calif., with body-worn cameras to record police encounters during shifts. The program aims to reduce use-of-force incidents and citizen complaints by increasing mutual accountability. The program is rated Promising. There was a statistically significant reduction in police use-of-force, but no statistically significant difference in citizens’ complaints.