Do Body-Worn Cameras Change Law Enforcement Arrest Behavior? A National Study of Local Police Departments

• Published date: 01 April 2021
• Date: 01 April 2021
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/0275074020982688
• Subject Matter: Articles

https://doi.org/10.1177/0275074020982688

American Review of Public Administration

2021, Vol. 51(3) 184 –198

© The Author(s) 2020

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DOI: 10.1177/0275074020982688

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Article

Introduction

Police officers’ actions during police–public encounters

exert a pervasive influence on the public, as these encounters

often occur without direct supervision from police managers

and often involve coercive actions such as arrest and use of

deadly force. In this regard, ensuring police accountability

during police–public encounters is an important issue for

police organizations. This has become an even more signifi-

cant issue lately following several high-profile police-

involved deaths of racial minority residents. In response to

these incidents, body-worn cameras (BWCs) were intro-

duced as a policy tool to control police behavior and enhance

police accountability during police–public encounters.

BWCs allow police supervisors to directly observe the

interactions that their officers have with the public on the

street. Research has shown that people tend to enga ge in

more socially desirable behaviors if they perceive that their

behaviors are being recorded by surveillance systems (Ariel

et al., 2017; Farrar, 2013; Francey & Bergmuller, 2012;

Nettle et al., 2012); therefore, the presence of BWCs is

expected to deter potential provocative behaviors of both

parties involved in police–public encounters and conse-

quently mitigate the tension between them. In addition, the

footage of BWCs is recognized to have evidentiary value

for police–public encounters, as it provides more accurate

descriptions of such encounters than verbal explanations of

police officers or bystanders.

Based upon these expectations, many U.S. local police

agencies began using BWCs in 2014, following the officer

shooting of Black teenager Michael Brown in Ferguson in

August 2014. Federal initiatives to enhance police account-

ability further motivate rapid diffusion of BWCs among

local police agencies. President Obama claimed a commit-

ment to enhancing trust between law enforcement agencies

and community members; accordingly, the Department of

982688ARPXXX10.1177/0275074020982688The American Review of Public AdministrationPyo

research-article2020

1University at Albany, State University of New York, USA

Corresponding Author:

Sunyoung Pyo, Rockefeller College of Public Affairs & Policy, University at

Albany, State University of New York, Milne Hall, 135 Western Avenue,

Albany, NY 12203, USA.

Email: pyo0312@gmail.com

Do Body-Worn Cameras Change

Law Enforcement Arrest Behavior?

A National Study of Local Police

Departments

Sunyoung Pyo1

Abstract

Controlling police officers’ discretionary behavior during public encounters has been an important issue in U.S. policing,

especially following several high-profile police-involved deaths of racial minorities. In response, body-worn cameras (BWCs)

were introduced to enhance police accountability by providing police managers an opportunity to monitor police–public

encounters. Although many U.S. local police departments have now implemented BWC programs, evidence of program

effects on daily police behavior has been limited. This study therefore focuses on whether officers’ arrest behavior changes

when they perceive that BWCs are recording their interactions with the public. By conducting a difference-in-differences

analysis using 142 police departments, I found that BWCs have negative and small treatment effects on arrest rates and

null effects on the racial disparity between numbers of Black and White arrests. These findings imply that officers may

become slightly more cautious in the use of arrests after wearing BWCs, but BWCs do not change their overall disparate

treatment of Black versus White suspects. The results further indicate that the effects of BWCs on arrests are prominent

in municipalities with high crime rates or a high proportion of non-White residents, which suggests that BWC programs

demonstrate different effects according to the characteristics of communities served.

Keywords

police accountability, body-worn cameras, arrest, police behavior, policy effectiveness