The RIDE study: Effects of body‐worn cameras on public perceptions of police interactions

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/1745-9133.12511
• Author: Ryan Lahay,William P. McCarty,Alana Saulnier,Carrie Sanders
• Date: 01 August 2020
• Published date: 01 August 2020

Received:  November  Revised:  June  Accepted:  June 

DOI: ./- .

SPECIAL ISSUE ARTICLE

CUTTING-EDGE RESEARCH IN POLICE POLICY AND PRACTICE

The RIDE study: Effects of body-worn cameras

on public perceptions of police interactions

Alana Saulnier1Ryan Lahay2William P. McCarty3

Carrie Sanders4

Lakehead University

Ontario Tech University

The University of Illinois at Chicago

Wilfrid Laurier University

Correspondence

AlanaSaulnier, Lakehead University,

UniversityAvenue, Orillia, ON, Canada,

LVB.

Email:alana.saulnier@lakeheadu.ca

Fundinginformation

SocialSciences and Humanities Research

Councilof Canada, Grant/Award Number:

--

Research Summary: During a brief interaction with

motorists (i.e., a sobriety check), this study manipulated

officer use (and declaration) of a body-worn camera

(BWC) (present; absent) while documenting participant

BWC recollection (correct; incorrect)to assess effects on

motorists’ perceptions of the encounter and of police

more generally. Results (N =) demonstrate that per-

ceptions of procedural justice were more favourable in

the BWC-present condition when the entire sample was

included in the analyses, but that this effect was not sig-

nificant when focusing on the subset of the sample that

correctly recollected BWCuse (though the pattern of the

effect was the same in both analyses).

Policy Implications: In combination with results from

a handful of similar studies, this study’s results sug-

gest that BWCs may be a tool that can be leveraged to

enhance public perceptions of encounters with police;

however, more research is needed to substantiate this

claim. In particular, the development of evidence-based

policy on this matter necessitates continued studies that

address issues such as sample imbalances (e.g., gender

and minority status), length of the interaction studied

(i.e., experimental dosage), and controlling for officer

behavior.

KEYWORDS

body-worn cameras, field experiment, police, procedural justice,

public perceptions, randomized controlled trial

Criminology & Public Policy. ;:–. ©  American Society of Criminology 833wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/capp

834 SAULNIER  .

Police-involved deaths in the United States and Canada, among other countries, have been a key

catalyst to international discussions focused on public perceptions of police legitimacy (Crow,

Snyder,Crichlow, & Smykla, ; Jennings, Fridell, & Lynch, ; White, Todak, & Gaub, ).

Police legitimacy is a complex theoretical concept that “is multi-dimensional in character, com-

prising judgments about actual or perceived police procedural justice, distributive justice, legality,

and effectiveness” (Tankebe,, p. ), and it relies on the belief that an authority is entitled to

be obeyed (Sunshine & Tyler,). Body-worn cameras (BWCs) (mobile audio and video record-

ing devices) have been proposed as a tool that mayassist in enhancing public perceptions of police,

including perceptions of police legitimacy (Sousa, Miethe, & Sakiyama, ;White,), in part

by addressing treatment-oriented concerns that influence public perceptions of police legitimacy

via the construct of procedural justice (Braga, Sousa, Coldren, & Rodriguez, ; Demir, Apel,

Braga, Brunson, & Ariel, ; White et al., ).More specifically, deterrence and self-awareness

theories suggest that BWCpresence will improve officer and community member behavior during

police-public interactions (Ariel, ; Ariel, Farrar, & Sutherland, ). This improved behavior

may enhance public perceptions of procedural justice (i.e., trust, neutrality, respect, and voice)

during specific encounters with police, which will, in turn, increase public perceptions of police

legitimacy more generally,according to the process-based model of policing (Mazerolle, Antrobus,

Bennett, & Tyler, ; National Research Council [NRC], ; Tyler, ).

Police officers (Jennings et al., ; Lum, Stoltz, Koper, & Scherer, ) and members of the

public (ODS Consulting, ; White et al., ) have both been shown to support police use

of BWCs, but more research is needed to develop evidence-based understandings of the effects

of this technology on perceptions of police and reactions to police. Research that manipulates

police use of BWCs (i.e., intentionally varies whether a BWC is used or not) and documents pub-

lic perceptions following a police interaction is particularly important in this regard. The existing

literature exploring public perceptions of BWCs has largely focused on general public opinions

(Ellis, Jenkins, & Smith, ; James & Southern, ; ODS Consulting, ), while experimen-

tal research exploring perceptions of community members who have had a recent contact with

a police officer (referred to throughout as police contact) is more limited (Demir, ;Demir

et al., ; McClure et al., ; Police Executive Research Forum [PERF], ). To extend this

developing area of research, the current study explores the effects of police use of BWCs on police

contacts’ perceptions of encounter-specific procedural justice as well as perceptions of police legit-

imacy more generally. The study was conducted with the partnership of a mid-sized Canadian

police service operating in Ontario and serving a community of approximately , residents.

A randomized controlled trial was used to manipulate officer use (and declaration) of a BWC

during a brief interaction with motorists (i.e., a sobriety check), to answer the following research

questions:

. Does police use of BWCs improve public perceptions of encounter-specific procedural justice

and/or perceptions of more general police legitimacy?

. When focusing only on participants who correctly recalled BWC use (present or absent), are

the effects of BWC use on perceptions of police (procedural justice or legitimacy) larger than

those produced when the entire sample is used?

Drawing on the theoretical arrangement of the process-based model of policing (Tyler, ),

as well as empirical work demonstrating the theory’s utility in relation to police use of BWCs

(Demir et al., ), we predicted that BWC presence (and declaration) would positively impact

participants’ perceptions of their specific encounter with the officer as well as their perceptions