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Increasing Cooperation With the Police Using Body Worn Cameras

Accepted version
Peer-reviewed

Type

Article

Change log

Authors

Abstract

jats:p What can change the willingness of people to report crimes? A 6-month study in Denver investigated whether Body Worn Cameras (BWCs) can change crime-reporting behavior, with treatment-officers wearing BWCs patrolling targeted street segments, while control officers patrolled the no-treatment areas without BWCs. Stratified street segments crime densities were used as the units of analysis, in order to measure the effect on the number of emergency calls in target versus control street segments. Repeated measures ANOVAs and subgroup analyses suggest that BWCs lead to greater willingness to report crimes to the police in low crime density level residential street segments, but no discernable differences emerge in hotspot street segments. Variations in reporting are interpreted in terms of accountability, legitimacy, or perceived utility caused by the use of BWCs. Situational characteristics of the street segments explain why low-level street segments are affected by BWCs, while in hotspots no effect was detected. </jats:p>

Description

Keywords

Body Worn Cameras, hotspots, cooperation, accountability, utility

Journal Title

POLICE QUARTERLY

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

1098-6111
1552-745X

Volume Title

19

Publisher

SAGE Publications