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Examining the Spatial Distribution and Contextual Correlates of Body-worn Camera Adoption in the USA
Abstract
Body-worn cameras have proliferated in law enforcement agencies over the past decade. Yet, studies examining the relevance of place for body-worn camera adoption are sparse. This study investigated the spatial distribution and contextual correlates of body-worn cameras in the USA. Using data from the 2016, Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics survey linked to the 2016 American Community Survey, this study examined spatial dependence in body-worn camera adoption across US counties and whether higher levels of concentrated disadvantage in an agency’s jurisdiction increased the odds of body-worn camera adoption. LISA (local indicator of spatial association) and colocation maps indicated that counties with body-worn cameras and high levels of concentrated disadvantage were clustered and colocated almost entirely in southern states. Two-level logistic hierarchical models indicated that county-level disadvantage played key roles in predicting body-worn camera adoption. Findings suggest that research should account for the context in which body-worn cameras are adopted.
... Despite the multitude of themes addressed by researchers focusing on BWCs, only a small number of studies (i.e., Hendrix et al., 2019;Lawshe et al., 2022;Mrozla and Hellwege, 2020;Nix et al., 2020;Nowacki and Willits, 2018;Pyo, 2022;Smith, 2019) focused on the front end and sought to identify the factors that predict BWC adoption. Considering the fact that recent official data indicate that many US police departments continue to show no interest in adopting this relatively recent technological innovation (Escamilla and Reichert, 2019), it is important to understand not only why police departments adopted or plan to adopt and use the new technology (Smith, 2019), but also why some police departments are reluctant to do so. ...
... Specifically, using the Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics Body-Worn Camera Supplement (LEMAS -BWCS) we are interested in identifying the characteristics of police organizations and of the environment in which a police agency operates (i.e., police union strength at the state level and BWC-related legislation) that are more likely to predict different levels of resistance to BWC adoption. While researchers used LEMAS data in the past to determine what motivated police agencies to adopt BWCs, these research studies focused on police agencies that had already acquired BWCs or explored potential differences between agencies that adopted BWCs and those that did not (e.g., Coleman, 2020;Lawshe et al., 2022;Mrozla and Hellwege, 2020;Nowacki and Willits, 2018;Pyo, 2022). To the authors' knowledge, no study focused exclusively on police agencies that did not have BWCs to determine what factors differentiate police agencies that plan to adopt BWCs in the future from agencies that do not intend to acquire BWCs or have ambivalent adoption intentions. ...
... Frequently motivated by privacy concerns (see Pyo, 2020), the police unions' resistance to the implementation of BWC programs is documented by several studies (see Huff et al., 2018 for a review). Although the effect of police unions on BWC adoption at the organizational level was rarely examined, findings indicate that agencies with collective bargaining agreements were less likely to have body-worn cameras (Lawshe et al., 2022;Mrozla and Hellwege, 2020;Nowacki and Willits, 2018). Moreover, in a state-level analysis, Pyo (2020) found that US states that adopted BWC legislation were not only racially diverse and highly urbanized, but they also lacked strong police unions. ...
Although the use of video-recording technology in policing is on the rise in the United States, not all police agencies in the country are following this trend. Using Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics Body-Worn Camera Supplement survey data collected in 2016 from a nationally representative sample of general-purpose law enforcement agencies, the present analysis identified some of the factors more likely to predict interagency differences in the intention to adopt body-worn cameras (BWCs). Findings show that resistance to the adoption of BWCs is reported by law enforcement agencies that do not think the new technology is needed, report a lack of support for BWC adoption from the agency's leadership and from patrol officers, and have privacy and cost-related concerns. Although the perceived lack of public support for the adoption of BWCs does not differentiate agencies that intend to acquire BWCs from agencies that do not, police departments that registered a higher percentage of complaints for excessive use of physical force are significantly more likely to oppose the adoption of BWCs. Support for BWC adoption is significantly higher in police departments that have acquired other types of recording equipment in the past. Even though recent state-level legislative changes related to BWCs do not have a significant impact on BWC adoption decisions at the organization level, results indicate that law enforcement agencies located in US states with strong police unions are more likely to show resistance to the adoption of BWCs in the near future.
... First, we applied entropy weights to balance the distribution of confounding measures between comparison groups to mitigate the possibility of selection bias, as the introduction of technological innovation is hardly exogenous. Police agency adoption and deployment of FRT may depend on several factors, such as police agency size, operating budget, existing technological profile, and sociodemographic differences in community support (Andreescu & Kim, 2022;Crow & Smykla, 2019;Koen et al., 2021;Lawshe et al., 2022;Pyo, 2022). Like propensity score methods, entropy balancing aims to achieve statistical equivalence among comparison groups to approximate an experimental design. ...
This study presents novel insights into the effects of police facial recognition applications on violent crime and arrest dynamics across 268 U.S. cities from 1997 to 2020. We conducted generalized difference-indifferences regressions with multiway fixed effects to exploit this technology's staggered implementation. Our findings indicate that police facial recognition applications facilitate reductions in the rates of felony violence and homicide without contributing to over-policing or racial disparities in arrest for violent offenses. Greater reductions were observed for cities that adopted these technologies earlier in the study period, suggesting that their public safety benefits appreciate over time. The results of parallel trend and robustness tests also support these conclusions. While further research is necessary to assess the implementation and effects of facial recognition systems in various contexts, presented evidence suggests that urban police agencies that responsibly deploy these innovations to support crime control efforts can keep their residents safer and reduce the lives lost to violence.
... First, we applied entropy weights to balance the distribution of confounding measures between comparison groups to mitigate the possibility of selection bias, as the introduction of technological innovation is hardly exogenous. Police agency adoption and deployment of FRT may depend on several factors, such as police agency size, operating budget, existing technological profile, and sociodemographic differences in community support [48,[88][89][90][91][92]. Like propensity score methods, entropy balancing aims to achieve statistical equivalence among comparison groups to approximate an experimental design. ...
This study presents novel insights into the effects of police facial recognition applications on violent crime and arrest dynamics across 268 U.S. cities from 1997 to 2020. We conducted generalized difference-in-differences regressions with multiway fixed effects to exploit this technology’s staggered implementation. As the first to examine how the police use of these systems impacts violent crime control, this study fills a critical research gap. Our findings indicate that police facial recognition applications facilitate reductions in the rates of felony violence and homicide without contributing to over-policing or racial disparities in arrest for violent offenses. Greater reductions were observed for cities that adopted these technologies earlier in the study period, suggesting that their public safety benefits appreciate over time. The results of parallel trend and robustness tests also support these conclusions. While further research is necessary to assess the implementation and effects of facial recognition systems in various contexts, presented evidence suggests that city police agencies that responsibly deploy these innovations to support crime control efforts can keep their residents safer and reduce the lives lost to violence.
The cause(s) of reduced use of force and complaints following police body-worn camera (BWC) deployment remain unclear, though some argue that BWCs generate a civilizing effect on citizen behavior. This potential effect rests on four pre-conditions: (1) BWC presence and citizen awareness; (2) BWC activation; (3) Escalated citizen behavior or the potential for escalation; (4) Citizen mental capacity for BWC awareness. Prior research has not established the civilizing effect’s existence, or how often these pre-conditions are met; this study aims to fill that gap. Data was collected during systematic social observation (SSO) of 166 encounters between citizens and officers in the Tempe, Arizona Police Department. The results tell a simple story. Two pre-conditions (activation, citizen mental capacity) are consistently met; awareness and escalated behavior are not. Overall, 1.2% of encounters saw all pre-conditions met. The paper concludes with a discussion of the implications for research on BWCs.
Objectives
Examine changes in officer behavior, when wearing body-worn cameras, as revealed by pedestrian stops, vehicle stops, arrests, use of force, and citizen complaints during a pilot implementation in a racially diverse jurisdiction in the Northeast region of the USA.
Methods
A quasi-experimental approach was used to examine the initial implementation of body-worn cameras (BWCs) in one district. This provided the opportunity for a natural experiment comparing officers in the district that deployed cameras with officers in three similar districts where no BWCs were deployed. Propensity score matching (PSM) was used to match BWC officers with non-BWC officers.
Results
BWC officers had about 38.3% fewer use of force incidents than non-BWC officers with similar numbers of use of force incidents in the previous year. On average, BWC officers made 46.4% fewer pedestrian stops and 39.2% fewer arrests than non-BWC officers. Vehicle stops and citizen complaints had nonsignificant declines for BWC officers.
Conclusions
The reductions in proactive policing by officers are consistent with a deterrence-based view that officers respond to the increased scrutiny by curtailing interactions with citizens, which in turn, limits the potential for conflict and for police supervisors to identify behavior worthy of disciplinary action. The lack of a significant reduction in citizen complaints supports the view that the effect of BWCs on negative officer behavior is contingent upon other factors in the settings in which cameras are deployed. Future research should examine the impacts of cameras on the narrowing of police discretion because of the important implications for police–community relations.
This paper operationalizes the idea of a local indicator of spatial association for the situation where the variables of interest are binary. This yields a conditional version of a local join count statistic. The statistic is extended to a bivariate and multivariate context, with an explicit treatment of co-location. The approach provides an alternative to point pattern-based statistics for situations where all potential locations of an event are available (e.g., all parcels in a city). The statistics are implemented in the open-source GeoDa software and yield maps of local clusters of binary variables, as well as co-location clusters of two (or more) binary variables. Empirical illustrations investigate local clusters of house sales in Detroit in 2013 and 2014, and urban design characteristics of Chicago census blocks in 2017.
Body-worn cameras (BWCs) are touted as a much-needed remedy to address police misconduct. Proponents argue that BWCs can serve not only as an accountability instrument, but that their use will lower costs attributed to investigation and evidence collection in the event of a civilian or internal complaint. However, the push for furnishing patrol officers with BWCs in order to bolster accountability, professionalism, and faith in institutional legitimacy might be a misguided effort. The argument that public perception of police officers’ use of force will be improved once officers are outfitted with a surveillance mechanism is unfounded for at least two reasons. First, evidence suggests that because they are aware of their being recorded, wrongdoing police officers may plant weapons and invoke language at a crime scene that corroborates a justified response to suspects who pose a threat. Second, civilians and officers alike have always known images of unjust state violence and that the presentation of even the most damning evidence does not necessarily deter officers from violating constitutional protections, or reduce the likelihood of being acquitted when they do. Drawing from the narratives offered by 68 Black Baltimore City residents who were interviewed on the heels of Freddie Gray’s death in 2015, this study explores what surveilled community members think of BWCs and their disutility, as well as center their suggestions for true and lasting improvements in police-civilian interaction. Theoretical implications for critical race theory, legal legitimacy, and legal cynicism are also discussed.
Contentious debate is currently taking place regarding the extent to which public scrutiny of the police post‐Ferguson has led to depolicing or to a decrease in proactive police work. Advocates of the “Ferguson effect” claim the decline in proactive policing increased violent crime and assaults on the police. Although police body‐worn cameras (BWCs) are touted as a police reform that can generate numerous benefits, they also represent a form of internal and public surveillance on the police. The surveillance aspect of BWCs suggests that BWCs may generate depolicing through camera‐induced passivity. We test this question with data from a randomized controlled trial of BWCs in Spokane (WA) by assessing the impact of BWCs on four measures: officer‐initiated calls, arrests, response time, and time on scene. We employ hierarchical linear and cross‐classified models to test for between‐ and within‐group differences in outcomes before and after the randomized BWC rollout. Our results demonstrate no evidence of statistically significant camera‐induced passivity across any of the four outcomes. In fact, self‐initiated calls increased for officers assigned to treatment during the RCT. We discuss the theoretical and policy implications of the findings for the ongoing dialogue in policing.
Police body-worn cameras (BWCs) are an increasingly prominent research area in criminal justice. This trend mirrors current practice, with more and more law enforcement agencies implementing or procuring BWCs. Yet the evidence on BWCs is substantially long on evidence but rather short on theory. Why should BWCs 'work' and under what conditions or on whom? This article offers a more robust theoretical composition for the causal mechanisms that can explain the efficacy of BWCs. What sets them apart from other surveillance devices, such as closedcircuit televisions (CCTVs), speed cameras, or bystanders' mobile cameras? We introduce the deterrence spectrum, within which BWCs can de-escalate or exacerbate aggressive encounters. We argue that the deterrent effect of BWCs is a function of discretion, whereby strong discretion is inversely linked to a weak deterrent effect that consequently leads to more use of force, and weak discretion is inversely linked to a strong deterrent effect and less forceful police responses. We show that the deterrence effect of BWCs ranges from 'minimal deterrence' to 'maximum deterrence' depending on the officer's discretion. At one extreme, 'over-deterrence' and even 'inertia' are possible, which are manifested in police withdrawal. Given the mechanisms that are in play, more attention ought to be given to officers' discretion, training on appropriate use of BWCs, and technological fixes. We conclude by linking these findings to BWCs discretion policy, as well the willingness of the agency to adopt an evidence-based policing framework. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.
Despite relatively little extant research, efforts to expand the use of body-worn cameras (BWCs) in policing are increasing. Although recent research suggests positive impacts of BWCs on reducing police use-of-force and citizen complaints, little is known about community members’ perceptions of BWCs. The current study examined perceptions of residents of two Florida counties and found a large majority of respondents supported the use of BWCs. Structural equation modeling was utilized to examine factors that influence views of BWCs. Findings indicate that positive perceptions of police performance and more police interaction were associated with greater perceived benefits of BWCs, whereas concerns about the privacy reduced perceived BWC benefits. Respondents’ views of procedural fairness and crime concern were indirectly related to perceptions BWC benefits. Non-White and younger respondents were indirectly less likely to perceive benefits. Implications of these findings and future directions for research are discussed.
This study aims to assess the effect of body-worn cameras (BWCs) on police use of force, in a British police force context. We tested the effect of BWCs with a large British force in a six-month randomised controlled trial. Police shifts (n = 430) were randomly assigned on a weekly basis into treatment and control conditions. Odds ratios of use-of-force rates per arrests were used to estimate the causal impact of BWCs. Analyses of these odds for overall use of force and again within pre-specified force categories were conducted. Overall, we found a 50 percent reduction in the odds of force used when BWCs are present compared with control conditions. Our estimates suggest a 35 percent reduction of overall weighted force in the treatment conditions compared with control conditions. However, the effect concentrates in open-hand tactics (physical restraints and non-compliant handcuffing), with no discernible effect on categories of more aggressive force responses (for example, dogs, Tasers, batons, pepper spray); 40 percent ‘more force’ was detected in treatment conditions for handcuffing non-combatant suspects. We conclude that BWCs deter officers, offenders or both into complaint behaviour. Importantly, showing a conditional effect on force types can be further contextualised as enhanced transparency and accountability by the police, with greater reporting of use of force that would otherwise be concealed. Our findings illustrate the importance of analysing police use of force with and without compliant handcuffing of arrestees, which may or may not form part of the force continuum.
The current study provides a statistically rigorous program evaluation of the impact of police body-worn cameras (BWCs) on police response-to-resistance (e.g., use of force). Results indicate that BWC officers’ mean frequency of response-to-resistance decreased by 8.4% from the 12 months pre-BWC implementation to the 12 months post-BWC implementation compared with a 3.4% increase observed for the matched sample of non-BWC officers. Police departments should consider adopting BWCs alongside other strategies to reduce police response-to-resistance, and to improve transparency and accountability. Study limitations and directions for future research are also discussed.
The use of body-worn cameras (BWCs) by the police is rising. One proposed effect of BWCs is reducing complaints against police, which assumes that BWCs reduce officer noncompliance with procedures, improve suspects? demeanor, or both, leading to fewer complaints. We report results from a global, multisite randomized controlled trial on whether BWC use reduces citizens? complaints. Seven discrete tests (N = 1,847 officers), with police shifts as the unit of analysis (N = 4,264), were randomly assigned into treatment and control conditions. Using a prospective meta-analytic approach, we found a 93% before?after reduction in complaint incidence (Z = ?3.234; p < .001), but no significant differences between trial arms in the studies (d = .053, SE = .11; 95% confidence interval [CI] = [?.163, .269]), and little between-site variation (Q = 4.905; p = .428). We discuss these results in terms of an ?observer effect? that influences both officers? and citizens? behavior and assess what we interpret as treatment diffusion between experimental and control conditions within the framework of ?contagious accountability.?
This research article aims to add to current knowledge on reflection, body-worn video, and police education. It examines the
potential effects of an intervention which employed subcams (a type of body-worn video) and replay interviews of video footage
to enhance experiential learning during an operative training course for Norwegian police students in their final year of
study. Our investigation examines evaluation surveys for differences between an intervention and comparison group on reflection
and experiential learning outcomes. Findings indicate that students in the intervention group self-reported more general learning
outcomes from the course concerning decision-making and communication and that they could identify their own mistakes to a
greater degree. They also reported more learning outcomes as measured by the number of statements written about what they
learned and would change to improve their performance on three different simulations. Moreover, the content of these statements
reflected the intervention as they involved communication and decision-making to a greater degree than students in the comparison
group. Implications for the further use of body-worn video to encourage reflection and enhance experiential learning in professional
police training and development are discussed.
Objectives
Systematically review and synthesize the existing research on community-oriented policing to identify its effects on crime, disorder, fear, citizen satisfaction, and police legitimacy.
Methods
We searched a broad range of databases, websites, and journals to identify eligible studies that measured pre-post changes in outcomes in treatment and comparison areas following the implementation of policing strategies that involved community collaboration or consultation. We identified 25 reports containing 65 independent tests of community-oriented policing, most of which were conducted in neighborhoods in the United States. Thirty-seven of these comparisons were included in a meta-analysis.
Results
Our findings suggest that community-oriented policing strategies have positive effects on citizen satisfaction, perceptions of disorder, and police legitimacy, but limited effects on crime and fear of crime.
Conclusions
Our review provides important evidence for the benefits of community policing for improving perceptions of the police, although our findings overall are ambiguous. The challenges we faced in conducting this review highlight a need for further research and theory development around community policing. In particular, there is a need to explicate and test a logic model that explains how short-term benefits of community policing, like improved citizen satisfaction, relate to longer-term crime prevention effects, and to identify the policing strategies that benefit most from community participation.
Purpose
– Since 1987, the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) has periodically collected data from police agencies in the USA and disseminated these data as the Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics (LEMAS) series. The purpose of this paper is to outline LEMAS's impact on criminal justice scholarship by describing the nexus between policing scholarship and LEMAS, and by analyzing the LEMAS constructs and variables used by researchers in refereed journal articles.
Design/methodology/approach
– A systematic review of the literature is undertaken to better comprehend how scholars use LEMAS variables and constructs. In total, 114 peer-reviewed journal articles were analyzed to parcel out variables and constructs derived from LEMAS data.
Findings
– The paper's analysis reveals that LEMAS is the second-most used BJS data series and the majority of authors use LEMAS to measure elements of organizational structure but not organizational behaviors, outcomes, or outputs.
Originality/value
– The study is the first to systematically identify all peer-reviewed journal articles that utilize LEMAS data. Police organizational research is unique in the fact that most authors agree on the operationalization of variables and constructs.
Building upon and expanding the previous research into structural determinants of homicide, particularly the work of Land,
McCall, and Cohen (1990), the current paper introduces a multilevel theoretical framework that outlines the influences of three major structural
forces on homicidal violence. The Big Three are poverty/low education, racial composition, and the disruption of family structure.
These three factors exert their effects on violence at the following levels: neighborhood/community level, family/social interpersonal
level, and individual level. It is shown algebraically how individual-level and aggregate-level effects contribute to the
size of regression coefficients in aggregate-level analyses. In the empirical part of the study, the presented theoretical
model is tested using county-level data to estimate separate effects of each of the Big Three factors on homicide at two time
periods: 1950–1960 and 1995–2005 (chosen to be as far removed from one another as the availability of data allows). All major
variables typically used in homicide research are included as statistical controls. The results of analyses show that the
effects of the three major structural forces—poverty/low education, race, and divorce rates—on homicide rates in US counties
are remarkably strong. Moreover, the effect sizes of each of the Big Three are found to be identical for both time periods
despite profound changes in the economic and social situation in the United States over the past half-century. This remarkable
stability in the effect sizes implies the stability of homicidal violence in response to certain structural conditions.
Explanations of police coercion have been traditionally embedded within sociological, psychological, and organizational theoretical frameworks. Largely absent from the research are examinations exploring the role of neighborhood context on police use-of-force practices. Using data collected as part of a systematic social observation study of police in Indianapolis, Indiana, and St. Petersburg, Florida, this research examines the influence of neighborhood context on the level of force police exercise during police-suspect encounters using hierarchical linear modeling techniques. The authors found police officers are significantly more likely to use higher levels of force when suspects are encountered in disadvantaged neighborhoods and those with higher homicide rates, net of situational factors (e.g., suspect resistance) and officer-based determinants (e.g., age, education, and training). Also found is that the effect of the suspect's race is mediated by neighborhood context. The results reaffirm Smith's 1986 conclusion that police officers “act differently in different neighborhood contexts.
This article presents data from the completed first wave of a multiwave comparative study of crime, danger, and informal social control that focuses on youth living in three high-crime neighborhoods in Philadelphia, PA (N= 147). The study is a purposive sample of delinquent and nondelinquent young men and women in one predominantly African-American, one predominantly Latino, and one predominantly white neighborhood, and researchers have completed in-depth interviews and self-reports with each subject. This article focuses on the narratives that youth living in high-crime neighborhoods build around their contact with police and the strategies the young people propose for crime reduction in their communities. The data illustrate that most youth in each neighborhood are negatively disposed toward police and that this is grounded in the lived experience of negative encounters with law enforcement. However, when youth expounded on what they thought would reduce crime, they overwhelmingly chose increased and tougher law enforcement. We analyze these findings to determine whether support exists for a subcultural approach or a cultural attenuation/procedural justice argument, and we explore the implications of our findings for community-based crime control.
Spatial analysis is statistically and substantively important for macrolevel criminological inquiry. Using county-level data for the decennial years in the 1960 to 1990 time period, we reexamine the impact of conventional structural covariates on homicide rates and explicitly model spatial effects. Important findings are: (1) homicide is strongly clustered in space; (2) this clustering cannot be completely explained by common measures of the structural similarity of neighboring counties; (3) noteworthy regional differences are observed in the effects of structural covariates on homicide rates; and (4) evidence consistent with a diffusion process for homicide is observed in the South throughout the 1960–1990 period.
While a considerable number of studies had been conducted to examine the effects of various variables on police behavior, very few studies had simultaneously analyzed factors that accounted both for police coercive and noncoercive behaviors. Equally limited is the research on the influences of officer characteristics and neighborhood context on police behavior controlling for all individual situational factors. Using observational and survey data collected by a large-scale project and hierarchical linear modeling techniques, this study assessed the effects of situational, officer, and neighborhood variables on police coercive and noncoercive actions, as well as the cross-level effects between these variables. Findings showed that situational characteristics played a strong role in determining officer coercive behavior, but not noncoercive activities. Similarly, officer-level predictors explained better officers' variation in coercive behavior than noncoercive behavior. Meanwhile, socially disadvantaged neighborhoods were more prone to receive coercive activities than were other neighborhoods. Implications for policy and future research are discussed.
This study compared police perceptions of BWCs in terms of officers’ perceptions of BWC acceptance (police support for BWCs, citizen support of BWCs, and comfort with the use of BWCs), the effect of BWCs on police (transparency, accountability, respectful treatment, use of force, and officer safety), the effect of BWCs on citizens (general perceptions of police, perceptions of police trustworthiness, respect toward police, satisfaction with police, and citizen safety), officer activity (response to calls for service and enforcement of the law), and complaints (internal and citizen complaints) among different types of police agencies. The data were collected from a survey administered to 131 police officers from the State Police (SP), City Police (CP), and University Police (UP). The results of bivariate and multivariate analysis showed that CP officers have the most positive views of BWCs, followed by UP officers, and SP officers. The multivariate analyses also showed that a significant difference was found between CP and SP officers for BWC acceptance, effect of BWCs on police and citizens, and complaints, between CP and UP officers for effect of BWCs on citizens, while no significant difference was found between SP and UP officers. The results and policy implications are discussed.
The national debate about police use of force against racial minority residents has led to increased attention to body-worn cameras (BWCs) as tools for increasing police accountability. Although researchers have documented the effectiveness of BWCs, little research has been done to examine why police departments decide to use them in the first place. Based on an innovation framework, the current study aims to explain what factors determine police departments’ decisions to implement BWCs. By examining 139 U.S. police departments using event history analyses, I find that the police departments with a higher severity of police-involved deaths of minority residents and a higher strength of social movements protesting police brutality are more likely to implement BWCs. In addition, some organizational and environmental factors, including the availability of federal grants and the council-manager form of government, have significant associations with BWC implementation. Findings also suggest that different patterns of BWC implementation are demonstrated according to environmental context.
By 2016, approximately one half of American police agencies had adopted body-worn cameras (BWCs). Although a growing body of research has examined the impact of BWCs on outcomes such as use of force, complaints, and perceptions of police, few have considered how and why some agencies adopted BWCs, while others have not. With guidance from the diffusion of innovations paradigm, this study explores variation in BWC adoption by police agencies. Drawing on a survey administered to a national probability sample of 665 municipal police executives in the spring of 2018, we found agency size, region, and the demographic composition of municipalities were associated with BWC usage. We then examined executives’ support for (or opposition to) legislation that would require BWC footage to be released publicly. Results suggest (a) a variety of environmental factors were associated with support and (b) the correlates of support varied across agencies of different sizes.
In only five years, both the implementation of police body-worn cameras (BWCs) and the evidence base evaluating the technology has diffused at a breakneck pace. As the number of studies has increased, so too has the uncertainty surrounding BWCs and their impact on various outcomes. In this commentary, we bring together the differing viewpoints on the five existing summaries of the BWC literature, highlight the key sources of contention, and make recommendations for BWC scholars and consumers moving forward.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to use Maguire’s (2003) theory of police organizations to explain whether police agencies dedicate specific personnel to cybercrime response.
Design/methodology/approach
Data from this study come from the 2013 Law Enforcement Management and Statistics survey. Maguire’s (2003) theory of the organizational structure of police organizations is used to measure organizational variables related to context, complexity and control. Logistic regression is used to examine whether these organizational characteristics are related to cybercrime response.
Findings
The results suggest that organizational context, complexity and control are related to cybercrime response. Specifically, in terms of context, larger agencies, agencies whose officers engage in more non-routine tasks, and agencies governed by an active collective bargaining agreement are more likely to dedicate specific resources to cybercrime. In terms of complexity, agencies with more hierarchical layers, agencies that utilize more specialization and agencies that make greater use of civilian employees are more likely to dedicate specific personnel to cybercrime. Finally, regarding control, agencies that assign non-sworn personnel to administrative tasks are more likely to dedicate resources to cybercrime response.
Originality/value
This study is one of the first to use this framework to examine the relationship between organizational characteristics and cybercrime response. It shows that this perspective can be useful for understanding police organizations and police policies, programs and strategies.
This paper contributes to research on neighborhood effects and knowledge about the conditions associated with community-level patterns of police behavior by examining whether levels of violence, racial and ethnic composition, and socioeconomic disadvantage are associated with officer-involved shootings in Houston, TX. In addition, drawing from the ecological theory of policing, this study explores whether spatial heterogeneity exists in the observed relationships. Poisson regression models reveal that community violence and neighborhood racial and ethnic context are meaningful indicators of on-duty officer-involved shootings. Socioeconomic disadvantage did not emerge as a significant variable in the models estimated. Results from Geographically Weighted Poisson Regression (GWPR) models indicate statistically significant spatial variation in the effects for all the key community factors. The findings highlight the importance of local context for developing a greater understanding of police violence across the urban landscape.
Objectives
To examine the extent to which adults’ and youths’ perceptions of collective efficacy align, the shared and unique correlates of adults’ and youths’ perceptions, and the effects of adults’ and youths’ perceptions on youths’ violence.
Method
Descriptive analysis, hierarchical linear modeling, and spatial analysis analyze 1,636 youths from the 2008 Boston Youth Survey and 1,677 adults distributed across 85 neighborhoods from the 2008 Boston Neighborhood Study.
Results
Descriptive analysis indicates that Boston adults’ and youths’ perceptions are largely divergent. Spatial analysis indicates that there is not clustering of either adults’ or youths’ perceptions across Boston neighborhoods. Multilevel models indicate that adults’ and youths’ perceptions exhibit divergent etiology: Adults’ perceptions align closely with neighborhood collective efficacy and with their own neighborhood perceptions, while youths’ perceptions are largely a function of individual differences (race and age) and sociobehavioral factors (social support and educational expectations). Youths’ perceptions of collective efficacy, rather than aggregated adults’ perceptions of collective efficacy, are inversely associated with youths’ violence.
Conclusions
Adults’ and youths’ perceptions of collective efficacy represent distinct constructs. Research should focus on the divergent processes through which adults’ and youths’ perceptions are generated and the differential effects of adults’ and youths’ perceptions on youths’ behaviors.
There has been an increase in the adoption of body-worn cameras (BWCs) by law enforcement agencies in the United States and abroad. While several studies have showed promising results in officer satisfaction, community satisfaction, and other outcomes, the rationale for the adoption and diffusion of this technology has received little attention.This article suggests that agency adoption of BWCs can be understood through two competing theoretical frameworks: structural contingency theory and institutional theory. Intended as a research note, the paper sets up a number of testable propositions and hypotheses pertaining to BWCs as contextualized through these theories and measurable through the recent Law Enforcement Management Administrative Statistics-Body-Worn Camera Supplement.
An important source of racial disparity in policing is traffic enforcement. The level of discretion afforded to officers for traffic enforcement is generally greater than it is for other policing decisions. One way to control misuse of discretion is through minority representation, which is the extent that the racial composition of the police agency matches that of the local community. Using data from the Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) and the 2013 Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics (LEMAS), this study examines how social context and police organizational variables (e.g., minority representation) relate to enforcement outcomes. We find that organizational measures, including minority representation, relate to written citations and consent search requests. Moreover, non-white population size conditions the effect of minority representation on traffic stops and citations. These results highlight the importance of accounting for both social context and organizational characteristics when research examines discretionary police behavior.
Purpose
The diffusion of innovations paradigm suggests that stakeholders’ acceptance of a police innovation shapes how it spreads and impacts the larger criminal justice system. A lack of support by external stakeholders for police body-worn cameras (BWCs) can short-circuit their intended benefits. The purpose of this paper is to examine the perceptions of BWCs among non-police stakeholders who are impacted by the technology as well as how BWCs influence their daily work processes.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors conducted interviews and focus groups ( n =41) in two US cities where the police department implemented BWCs. The interviewees range from courtroom actors (e.g. judges, prosecutors) to those who work with police in the field (e.g. fire and mental health), city leaders, civilian oversight members, and victim advocates.
Findings
External stakeholders are highly supportive of the new technology. Within the diffusion of innovations framework, this support suggests that the adoption of BWCs will continue. However, the authors also found the decision to implement BWCs carries unique consequences for external stakeholders, implying that a comprehensive planning process that takes into account the views of all stakeholders is critical.
Originality/value
Despite the recent diffusion of BWCs in policing, this is the first study to examine the perceptions of external stakeholders. More broadly, few criminologists have applied the diffusion of innovations framework to understand how technologies and other changes emerge and take hold in the criminal justice system. This study sheds light on the spread of BWCs within this framework and offers insights on their continued impact and consequences.
Given the national interest in equipping police with body-worn cameras (BWCs), it is important to consider public attitudes concerning the technology. This article draws on the results of a national survey of citizen opinions of BWCs. The survey includes items related to general support for BWCs, opinions on their potential advantages, and attitudes towards their potential consequences. Results indicate that while there is general support for BWCs on police, opinions vary on the capacity of BWCs to increase transparency of police work, improve trust in police, and better police-citizen relationships. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved.
The increase in data from police-worn body cameras can illuminate formerly opaque practices. This article discusses using audiovisual big data from police-worn body cameras, citizen recordings, and other sources to address blind spots in police oversight. Based on body camera policies in America's largest cities, it discusses two possible roadblocks: (1) data retention and deletion, and (2) limits on use for evaluation and discipline. Although recordings are retained for criminal prosecutions, retention for oversight and accountability is overlooked or is contentious. Some departments have no policy on videos concerning civil suits against the police. The retention time for non-evidentiary recordings is also much shorter. Some policies limit their use for evaluation and discipline. Transactional myopia—seeing at the case rather than the systemic level—leads to a focus on specific footage for particular cases, rather than the potential of aggregated body camera big data to reveal important systemic information and to prevent the escalation of problems.
Research Summary
We explore integration and acceptance of body‐worn cameras (BWCs) among police, citizens, and stakeholders in one jurisdiction (Tempe, AZ) that adhered to the U.S. Department of Justice's (U.S. DOJ's) BWC Implementation Guide. We assess integration and acceptance through (a) officer surveys pre‐ and postdeployment, (b) interviews with citizens who had recent police encounters, and (c) interviews with external stakeholders. We also analyze (d) officer self‐initiated contacts, (e) misdemeanor court case time to disposition, and (f) case outcomes. We found high levels of BWC acceptance across all groups. Officer proactivity remained consistent. Time‐to‐case disposition and the rate of guilty outcomes both trended in positive directions.
Policy Implications
Although the results of early research on BWCs showed positive impacts, the findings from recent studies have been mixed. Implementation difficulties may explain the mixed results. Planning, implementation, and management of a BWC program are complex undertakings requiring significant resources. The technology also generates controversy, so the risk of implementation failure is substantial. The findings from our study demonstrate that adherence to the U.S. DOJ BWC Implementation Guide can lead to high levels of integration and acceptance among key stakeholders.
In the wake of recent high-profile lethal force incidents in the United States, police agencies have felt pressure to mandate that officers wear cameras to video record encounters with citizens. In this article, we examine how organisational characteristics influence the adoption of body-worn camera (BWC) technology in American police agencies. Using data from the 2013 Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Survey (LEMAS), we conduct logistic regression analysis to examine how various organisational variables influence whether agencies use BWCs. We analyse responses from 823 agencies. Our results suggest that departments that utilise more technology are more likely to adopt further innovations, such as BWCs. Conversely, we find that agencies with large operating budgets and agencies represented by collective bargaining units are less likely to report utilising BWCs. Agencies with more bargaining power have more leverage to resist pressures to use technology which might limit police discretion.
Two theorems derived from Blau's recent macrosociological theory of social structure are tested with data on intergroup criminal
victimization in the United States. The data base is taken from the National Crime Survey (ncs) national sample for the years 1973 to 1978. The theoretical predictions tested are that (1) the relative size of the same
group in different neighborhood contexts is inversely related to extent ofoutgroup victimization; and (2) neighborhood heterogeneity
is positively related to rates of intergroup victimization. These predictions are tested with data on the interpersonal crimes
of rape, robbery, assault, and larceny for two major parameters in Blau's theory—race and age. The results support the hypotheses
and show that while ingroup victimization is highly prevalent in the United States, interracial and interage criminal encounters
are strongly and positively related to neighborhood heterogeneity.
The use of deadly force is the most extreme form of coercive behaviour available to police officers. In this study, we examine organisational and structural predictors of police use of deadly force for large and small cities in the USA. Using data from the Supplementary Homicide Reports, the 2000 American Census and Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics Survey, we use regression models to evaluate the relationship between deadly force incidents and organisational variables. Results indicate that organisational characteristics are more salient for large cities than small ones. Our findings also highlight the importance of studying small city departments.
Argues that the formal structure of many organizations in post-industrial society dramatically reflect the myths of their institutional environment instead of the demands of their work activities. The authors review prevailing theories of the origins of formal structures and the main problem which those theories confront -- namely, that their assumption that successful coordination and control of activity are responsible for the rise of modern formal organization is not substantiated by empirical evidence. Rather, there is a great gap between the formal structure and the informal practices that govern actual work activities. The authors present an alternative source for formal structures by suggesting that myths embedded in the institutional environment help to explain the adoption of formal structures. Earlier sources understood bureaucratization as emanating from the rationalization of the workplace. Nevertheless, the observation that some formal practices are not followed in favor of other unofficial ones indicates that not all formal structures advance efficiency as a rationalized system would require. Therefore another source of legitimacy is required. This is found in conforming the organization's structure to that of the powerful myths that institutionalized products, services, techniques, policies, and programs become. (CAR)
This article considers what effect lynchings in one location had on lynchings elsewhere. The ''contagion'' model predicts that lynchings in one area increased the probability of lynchings in nearby areas, while the ''deterrence'' model expects the probability of lynchings in a given locale to decline when lynchings occurred elsewhere. County-level data for 10 southern states yield strong evidence of a negative spatial effect for three time periods (1895-99, 1905-9, and 1915-19) consistent with the deterrence model. Two interpretations for this spatial effect are: (1) whites were satisfied that local blacks were sufficiently threatened by nearby lynchings; (2) blacks altered their behavior to minimize conflict with local whites.
We merge Exploratory Spatial Data Analysis (ESDA) and a semi-parametric, group-based trajectory procedure (TRAJ) to classify communities in Chicago by violence trajectories across space. Total, street gun and other weapon homicide trajectories are identified across 831 census tracts between 1980 and 1995. We find evidence consistent with a weapon substitution effect in violent neighborhoods that are proximate to one another, a defensive diffusion effect of exclusively street gun-specific homicide increases in neighborhoods bordering the most violent areas, and a spatial decay effect of temporal homicide trends in which the most violent areas are buffered from the least violent by places experiencing mid-range levels of lethal violence over time. In merging these two methods of data analysis, we provide a more efficient way to describe both spatial and temporal trends and make significant advances in furthering applications of space-time methodologies.
The capabilities for visualization, rapid data retrieval, and manipulation in geographic information systems (GIS) have created the need for new techniques of exploratory data analysis that focus on the “spatial” aspects of the data. The identification of local patterns of spatial association is an important concern in this respect. In this paper, I outline a new general class of local indicators of spatial association (LISA) and show how they allow for the decomposition of global indicators, such as Moran's I, into the contribution of each observation. The LISA statistics serve two purposes. On one hand, they may be interpreted as indicators of local pockets of nonstationarity, or hot spots, similar to the Gi and G*i statistics of Getis and Ord (1992). On the other hand, they may be used to assess the influence of individual locations on the magnitude of the global statistic and to identify “outliers,” as in Anselin's Moran scatterplot (1993a). An initial evaluation of the properties of a LISA statistic is carried out for the local Moran, which is applied in a study of the spatial pattern of conflict for African countries and in a number of Monte Carlo simulations.
This paper presents a study of the relationship between type of neighborhood socioeconomic context, individual characteristics (individuals are classified by a set of selected key measures of individual dispositions and social situation) and serious male juvenile offending (prevalence and early and late onsets) in the city of Pittsburgh. The analytical strategy may best be described as holistic and epidemiological. The key research question is whether onset and prevalence of juvenile serious offending is invariant by neighborhood socioeconomic context when controlling for individual sets of risk and protective characteristics. The results do not support the notion that neighborhood socioeconomic context has any greater direct impact on the early onset of serious offending. However, neighborhood socioeconomic context appears to have a direct impact on the late onset of offending for those juveniles who score high on protective factors, or who have a balanced mix of risk and protective factors. No support was found for the notion that individual risk characteristics and neighborhood risk are additive. Children and adolescents with high scores on risk characteristics offend in serious crime at a similar high rate regardless of the socioeconomic context of their neighborhood.
The goal of this paper is to build on the growing body of research on immigration and crime in two important ways. The first is to employ more specific measures of immigration than have been used in previous analyses. Specifically, this analysis includes measures of ethnicity, indicators that contain information about both nativity and country of origin, which have rarely been used in prior research. Using ethnic-origin as a means of classifying a neighborhood's foreign-born population will promote a more nuanced understanding of the differential impacts of immigration on levels of violent criminal offending. Additionally, this research advances current knowledge on the link between immigration and crime by using more comprehensive crime indicators, including measures of non-lethal violence, which allows for a test of the degree to which the impact of immigration on violence varies across crime types. Using data for Miami and Houston, two immigrant destination cities, the results illustrate the need for researchers to be sensitive to ethnic differences among foreign-born populations. The findings support the calls for a refinement of the disorganization theory, one that is sensitive to the differences among the foreign-born population and one that does not assume that immigration is a causally associated with levels of criminal violence.
It is hypothesized that collective efficacy, defined as social cohesion among neighbors combined with their willingness to
intervene on behalf of the common good, is linked to reduced violence. This hypothesis was tested on a 1995 survey of 8782
residents of 343 neighborhoods in Chicago, Illinois. Multilevel analyses showed that a measure of collective efficacy yields
a high between-neighborhood reliability and is negatively associated with variations in violence, when individual-level characteristics,
measurement error, and prior violence are controlled. Associations of concentrated disadvantage and residential instability
with violence are largely mediated by collective efficacy.
The Effects of Body-Worn Cameras on Police Activity and Police-Citizen Encounters
- Braga
Research on Body-Worn Cameras: What we Know, What we Need to Know
- Lum