How body cameras may result in a more proactive and community-engaged police force

On October 5, 2018, Chicago Police Officer Jason Van Dyke was convicted of second degree murder and 16 counts of aggravated battery for the 2014 shooting of 17-year-old Laquan McDonald. While activists and Chicago community leaders have welcomed this conviction as an important step towards increasing police accountability, others have been skeptical of its positive impact. In his immediate response to Van Dyke’s conviction, Kevin Graham, President of the Illinois Fraternal Order of Police asked, “What cop would still want to be proactive fighting crime after this disgusting charade, and are law-abiding citizens ready to pay the price?”

Warnings that police will become less engaged in their work when faced with scrutiny have become a common refrain in recent reform debates. Politicians, police representatives, and news media have warned that increased accountability has resulted in ‘de-policing’, a phenomenon in which increased oversight forces police officers to be less proactive in their duties.

In a recent study, Andrea Headley, Rob Guerette, and Auzeen Shariati looked into the impact of a relatively simple police reform – the mandatory use of body-worn cameras (BWCs) by police officers. Previous research on BWCs has shown that the practice may reduce both the use of force by police officers and the amount of citizen complaints against officers wearing cameras. However, other studies have been inconclusive and have even shown BWC use to have negative impacts.

This study analyzed the implementation of the technology within the Hallandale Beach, Florida, Police Department between 2015-2016. The researchers sought new insights by designing a quasi-randomized experiment over two stages of BWC implementation. BWC use was tracked for 26 road patrol officers and sergeants and compared to a control group of 25 officers not wearing cameras. The collected data reflected officer-civilian interactions and surveys of the participants. The experiment sought to understand the changing perceptions amongst officers towards BWCs and the possibility of a de-policing effect.

Definitive conclusions from the study are limited, as small sample sizes and limited monthly data made it difficult to achieve statistical significance. However, a significant trend was identifiable: Reported field contact with civilians increased by 27.3 percent for police officers wearing body cameras. Furthermore, the data suggests that BWC usage may decrease arrests, reduce external complaints, and encourage more lenient traffic citations.

Surveys of officers participating in the experiment revealed that perceptions of the BWC technology trended negatively. As more officers used BWCs, the department’s members became increasingly pessimistic toward the efficacy and utility of body cameras. Concurrently, even though BWC implementation was mandatory for the officers in the study, compliance declined over time. BWC activation averaged at 82 percent for the first quarter-year of the study, but decreased to only 55 percent by the last quarter.

These results suggest two important findings in regard to the impact of BWCs on police activity. While many have claimed that efforts to improve accountability will result in less engaged officers, the Hallandale Beach Police Department continued to interact with civilians. BWCs did not lead to de-policing, but rather a potentially more proactive, community-engaged force. Nonetheless, officer discontent with the reform was apparent through decreased compliance and pessimistic attitudes. While the study does not seek to examine the impact of these perceptions, the research demonstrates how decreased compliance may inhibit policing reform.

In the overall fight for greater police accountability, body-worn cameras are often considered a “quick fix”. While the technology seems to have a direct impact on police behaviors, effective police accountability also needs the involvement of courts and local governments. In Chicago, after the death of Laquan McDonald, police officers became aware of the potential consequences of their actions – the unnecessary shooting of a civilian can result in a murder conviction. Likewise, police in the city now face greater judicial oversight, as the City of Chicago has recently agreed to a consent decree for policing reforms with the Attorney General of Illinois. While this study examines only one technological reform, it highlights some important considerations for policymakers: De-policing may be an overstated concern, and officer resistance must be considered in reform efforts.

Article source: Headley, Andrea M., et al. “A Field Experiment of the Impact of Body-Worn Cameras (BWCs) on Police Officer Behavior and Perceptions,” Journal of Criminal Justice, vol. 53, Nov. 2017, pp. 102–109.

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