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Using Wearable Technology to Increase Police Legitimacy in Uruguay: The Case of Body-Worn Cameras

Accepted version
Peer-reviewed

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Type

Article

Change log

Authors

Mitchell, Renee J 
Firpo, Maria Emilia 
Fraiman, Ricardo 

Abstract

jats:pjats:italicWhat are the effects of wearable police cameras on perceptions of the police? In this study, we report causal estimates from a crossover randomized controlled trial in Uruguay on the effects of use of body-worn cameras by traffic police on the perceptions of legitimacy and satisfaction by drivers ticketed for traffic violations. We pay particular attention to the effects on procedural justice—that is, perceptions of the fairness of the interactions between officers and drivers—without neglecting other features of legitimacy (i.e., effectiveness, distributive justice, and lawfulness). With the exception of lawfulness, wearable surveillance apparatuses showed improvements across all dimensions of legitimacy compared to control conditions, with medium to large effect sizes. The overall satisfaction from the police-public interaction was significantly higher when officers used body-worn cameras. These findings suggest that wearable surveillance technology can lead to enhanced perceptions of legitimacy across multiple dimensions, not just increased efficiency, as well as the perceived overall quality of police-public interaction</jats:italic>.</jats:p>

Description

Keywords

4805 Legal Systems, 44 Human Society, 48 Law and Legal Studies, 4402 Criminology, 4407 Policy and Administration, Clinical Trials and Supportive Activities, Clinical Research, Generic health relevance, 16 Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions

Journal Title

LAW AND SOCIAL INQUIRY-JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN BAR FOUNDATION

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

0897-6546
1747-4469

Volume Title

45

Publisher

Cambridge University Press (CUP)

Rights

All rights reserved