Cops and Cameras

• Date: 01 August 2018
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/1745-9133.12375
• Author: Wesley G. Jennings
• Published date: 01 August 2018

EDITORIAL INTRODUCTION

POLICE BODY-WORN CAMERAS

Cops and Cameras

Lights, Camera, Action!

Wesley G. Jennings

Texas State University

Police and citizen interactions have been the source of a considerable amount of

scholarly and media attention, particularly in the more recent years after highly

publicized cases such as Michael Brown, Philandro Castile, Keith Scott, and Sylville

Smith. Although these cases are unfortunately not unique in terms of their resulting in a

fatal outcome as the result of a police–citizen encounter,what is unique is that events such as

these have helped spark a national debate about how and what could be done policy-wise to

reduce the occurrence of (unnecessary) police use of force more generally and the perceived

disproportionate (unnecessary) police use of force on minority citizens and suspects more

specifically (Hollis and Jennings, 2018). One such suggestion that quickly arose to the

forefront of this discussion was police body-worn cameras. This technological innovation

was, however, at the time, in its relative infancy in terms of utilization, implementation,

and evaluation.

There is nothing inherently novel about cops and cameras. Closed circuit televisions

cameras (CCTVs), dashboard/in-car cameras, and so on have been around for a while in

policing. Similarly, the recent widespread availability and use of cell phones (with cameras

and video-recording capabilities) by bystanders and witnesses have yielded countless hours of

footage of police–citizen interactions (positive and negative). Yet,what seemed to be missing

from all of this “tape” was often the perspective of the officer and what citizen or suspect

characteristics, situational factors, and other event-specific details may have influenced a

police officer’s decision to escalate the encounter to where force (including deadly force)

was used: enter the police body-worn camera (BWC).

BWCs have been a part of policing for some time now, but there was not much

utilization of the technology in the early years among police departments and there was

generally little public or academic knowledge of their existence in the early years either. All

Direct correspondence to Wesley G. Jennings, School of Criminal Justice, College of Applied Arts, Texas State

University, 601 University Drive, Hines Room 108, San Marcos, TX 78666 (e-mail: jenningswgj@txstate.edu).

DOI:10.1111/1745-9133.12375 C2018 American Society of Criminology 643

Criminology & Public Policy rVolume 17 rIssue 3