A randomized control trial evaluating the effects of police body-worn cameras

David Vincent Yokum · Anita Ravishankar · Alexander Coppock

96 citations0/0 files storedProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

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Policing Practices and Perceptions Criminal Law and Evidence Deception detection and forensic psychology

Abstract

Police body-worn cameras (BWCs) have been widely promoted as a technological mechanism to improve policing and the perceived legitimacy of police and legal institutions, yet evidence of their effectiveness is limited. To estimate the effects of BWCs, we conducted a randomized controlled trial involving 2,224 Metropolitan Police Department officers in Washington, DC. Here we show that BWCs have very small and statistically insignificant effects on police use of force and civilian complaints, as well as other policing activities and judicial outcomes. These results suggest we should recalibrate our expectations of BWCs' ability to induce large-scale behavioral changes in policing, particularly in contexts similar to Washington, DC.

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References

2008Social Pressure and Voter Turnout: Evidence from a Large-Scale Field Experiment 2006Cues of being watched enhance cooperation in a real-world setting 2005Nobody's watching?2014The Effect of Police Body-Worn Cameras on Use of Force and Citizens’ Complaints Against the Police: A Randomized Controlled Trial 2016Wearing body cameras increases assaults against officers and does not reduce police use of force: Results from a global multi-site experiment 2012‘Cycle Thieves, We Are Watching You’: Impact of a Simple Signage Intervention against Bicycle Theft 2011Do watching eyes affect charitable giving? Evidence from a field experiment 2016Body-Worn Cameras and Citizen Interactions with Police Officers: Estimating Plausible Effects Given Varying Compliance Levels

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