The impact of Body Worn Cameras on public safety
The police department across the US, and indeed across the globe has, over the decades, been seen as one of the central and most important departments or agencies in the maintenance of law and order internally in the respective nations. They are charged with the sole mandate of ensuring that the wide ranging laws, from laws on petty theft to traffic offence and to more serious crimes like murder and assault, are followed to the letter and tranquility, law and order is maintained. It is due to this enormous and central role of the police in every country that pushes all governments to continually improve the police force in terms of equipping them for their duty. In the USA, the police department in every state has been seen to undergo significant changes in all sectors of their operations as decades go along. These have been seen in terms of their protective gear, the weapons they use, the vehicles they deploy in their daily operations, the communication system that the departments use in ensuring effective coordination of their security, rescue and recovery operation, the artificial intelligence employed in solving crimes and more so the process of evidence collection in crime scenes or scenes of crime.
One of those areas that have been considered as a positive step in many ways is the employment of the Body Worn Cameras (BWC) otherwise referred to as Officer Video Camera (OVC) by some quarters. These are specialized camera rigger devices that are worn on the front side of the police officer, attached to the uniform with a clear view same as that of the police officer. They are meant to be on throughout the time that a police officer steps out to go on duty in the field.
Purpose of the research
The BWC is meant to help the police officers in several ways in the process of executing their duties. This paper therefore looks at the various roles that the BWC plays, the advantages and efficiency that this device brings to the police force and the possible challenges that the BWC face as well as the solutions suggested towards ensuring the BWC becomes more efficient and acceptable among more police departments. There will be extensive literature review conducted with the aim of finding out the content concerning these aforementioned aspects surrounding the BWCs.
Perception of BWCs,
The BWCs have been receive in various parts of the country with varying perception and differing levels of acceptance. They have also been criticized and faulted in equal measure. However, the police departments that have fully employed this technology have always conducted a pilot test of them then rolled it out in full backed by data and facts. Most police departments and police officers therein have embraced the idea. Apart from ensuring that there is efficient public safety, the BWC have been proven to increase the safety of the police officers...
References
Ariel B., Farrar W.A & Sutherland A. (2015). The Effect of Police Body-Worn Cameras on Use
of Force and Citizens’ Complaints Against the Police: A Randomized Controlled Trial. Quaint Criminol. Springer Science & Business Media. New York.
Halac Y, (2016). Body Worn Video: Looking Beyong the Device. Security Technology Executive.
Headley A.M, Guerette R.T & Shariati A., (2017). A field experiment of the impact of body-worn cameras (BWCs) on police officer behavior and perceptions. Journal of Criminal Justice 53. Elsvier.
Jennings W.G., Lynch M.D & Fridell L.A,(2015). Evaluating the impact of police officer body-worn cameras (BWCs) on response-to-resistance and serious external complaints: Evidence from the Orlando police department (OPD) experience utilizing a randomized controlled experiment. Journal of Criminal Justice 43.
Young J.T & Ready J.T (2015). The impact of on-officer video cameras on police–citizen
contacts: findings from a controlled experiment in Mesa, AZ. Journal Exp Criminol Springer Sciences and Business Media. Dordrecth
White M.D, Gaub J.E and Natalie T. (2017). Exploring the Potential for Body-Worn Cameras to Reduce Violence in Police–Citizen Encounters. Retrieved April 21, 2018 from https://www.bja.gov/bwc/pdfs/2017-Policing-Spokane-Force-and-Complaints.pdf
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