Public Opinion About Police Use Of Body-Worn Cameras

There has been a significant increase in media attention about encounters between police officers and the public which have ended badly, sometimes in injury or death. These events have increased public concern about police conduct. Because of these events and the adverse publicity they have generated, many police departments have begun using body-worn cameras. The police use of body-worn cameras raises many important issues such as their effects on privacy and police-community relations. Because police departments have just recently begun using body cameras, there has been limited research on them. Consequently, the current study examined whether the public favors the use of body-worn cameras, how they view their possible positive and negative effects, and how they believe the police should use body-worn cameras. Participants were found to strongly support the use of body-worn cameras, though there was much less consensus among participants about how they should be used