Citation

Lessing S. Sociol. Compass 2022; 16(1): e12952.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2022, John Wiley and Sons)

DOI

10.1111/soc4.12952

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

As police body cameras develop as a widely used mechanism to promote police transparency and accountability, researchers are tasked with measuring whether the treatment of this surveillance mechanism meets its stated goals. But the goals have not been clearly outlined and instead, the array of stated goals varies by jurisdiction, creating obstacles for policy diffusion and comparative analyses across numerous randomized controlled trials. Without clearly defined goals, there is no alignment on what success looks like. This narrative review seeks to uncover why body cameras have been implemented in police agencies and what these agencies expect to gain from their use. It details the range of rationales for the adoption of body cameras, which stakeholder parties benefit from goal attainment, and what outcome measurements researchers have and can use to measure body cameras' ability to reach those goals. Most systematic literature reviews of body camera studies simply focus on one outcome measurement. This paper provides a broad view of the body camera research involving multiple outcome variables. It maps these findings onto the stated goals to demonstrate which goals seem to be attainable and which seem to expect body cameras to be a silver bullet solution to societal problems.

Language: en

Keywords

accountability; body cameras; complaints against police; law enforcement intelligence; outcome measurement; police discretion; policy implications; transparency; use of force