BWCs have not had statistically significant or consistent effects on most measures of officer and citizen behavior or citizens’ views of police

Hmm. From Research on body-worn cameras - What we know, what we need to know Cynthia Lum, Megan Stoltz, Christopher S. Koper, and J. Amber Scherer.

As the presence of body-worn cameras has become increasingly prevalent over the past five years or so, there is now emerging data to assess against original expectations.

My anticipation was that there would be a somewhat lengthy period of adoption owing to IT infrastructure support issues, privacy issues, cost, etc. I suspected that the impact would be tactically greater on police in the short term but strategically greater on the public in the longer term.

Specifically, my suspicion was that police would discover much greater deviance from rules-of-engagement activities than they had anticipated and that even though those variances might be greater than desired, it would take a while to redesign incentives, improve training, rewrite procedures, etc. There would also be a period of time for a Red Queen race between front line officers learning how to game the system and compliance managers seeking enforcement of procedures.

But eventually all that would settle down though and the balance of favor would tilt towards the police. Variants in the behaviors of the public are always going to be greater than the variances in behavior of the police and this new feedback mechanism would prove to be a boon to falsely accused police officers.

But either we are still too early to tell or body cameras just don't make a difference.

Research Summary: In this article, we provide the most comprehensive narrative review to date of the research evidence base for body-worn cameras (BWCs). Seventy empirical studies of BWCs were examined covering the impact of cameras on officer behavior, officer perceptions, citizen behavior, citizen perceptions, police investigations, and police organizations. Alt hough officers and citizens are generally supportive of BWC use, BWCs have not had statistically significant or consistent effects on most measures of officer and citizen behavior or citizens’ views of police. Expectations and concerns surrounding BWCs among police leaders and citizens have not yet been realized by and large in the ways anticipated by each. Additionally, despite the large growth in BWC research, there continues to be a lacuna of knowledge on the impact that BWCs have on police organizations and police–citizen relationships more generally.

Policy Implications: Regardless of the evidence-base, BWCs have already rapidly diffused into law enforcement, and many agencies will continue to adopt them. Policy implications from available evidence are not clear-cut, but most likely BWCs will not be an easy panacea for improv-ing police performance, accountability, and relationships with citizens. To maximize the positive impacts of BWCs, police and researchers will need to give more attention to the ways and contexts (organizational and community) in which BWCs are most beneficial or harmful. They will also need to address how BWCs can be used in police training, management, and internal investigations to achieve more fundamental organizational changes with the long-term potential to improve police performance, account ability, and legitimacy in the community.

Perhaps still too early, and I would be surprised if they had no material impact, but that is what the evidence suggests today. More studies to come.