Study: Fewer Citizen Complaints After Police Body Camera Deployment

Arecent randomized controlled trial found that the number of complaints against police fell dramatically  after officers were outfitted with body cameras. It is the latest piece of research suggesting that police body cameras have a positive effect on police-citizen interactions. The study, headed by the University of Cambridge ’s Institute of Criminology, studied complaints against police in seven sites in two countries. The departments involved in the study were in areas such as the English Midlands, Cambridgeshire, California, and Northern Ireland. Researchers examined 4,264 officer shifts over roughly 1.5 million hou rs. In the 12 months before the trial began there were 1,539 complaints filed against police in the seven sites. After 12 months of taking part in the trial there were 113 complaints, a reduction of 93%.Officers involved in the study were told to adhere to two policies that are not required by many departments: 1) officers wearing body cameras “had to keep the camera on during their entire shift,” and 2) those same officers had to “inform members of the public, during any encounter, that they were wearing a camera.”The study ’s findings are similar to anoften-mentioned trial that took place in Rialto, California, which also found that the outfitting of officers with body cameras was followed by a significant reduction (87.5%) in complaints.  Speaking about the most recent study, Cambridge University ’s Barak Ariel, who oversaw the Rialto tria...
Source: Cato-at-liberty - Category: American Health Authors: Source Type: blogs